“…From the initial b-fluoro-aketoacid fluoropyruvate adducts,w ed emonstrate the feasibility of two enzymatic transformations inspired by the metabolism of pyruvate in nature:d ehydrogenation and transamination. In fact, commercial lactate dehydrogenase, which we used earlier in stereochemical experiments, accepted 3c-l as substrates to afford the ß-fluoro-a-hydrox- yacids 9c-l.W ef urther show that the transaminase from Vibrio fluvialis (VfAT) [14] can convert 3h and 3j into the corresponding b-fluoro amino acids 10 h and 10 j,respectively. Finally,t op roduce 2'-o r3 '-fluorosugars,w es ubjected the previously purified acids or esters syn-4a, anti-4a, anti-4b, 6, and 7 to synthetic routes involving chemical reduction.…”