A screening of microorganisms has been performed to study the regio-and stereospecificities of the reduction of carbonyl groups in 2,4 and 3,5 diketones to obtain all stereoisomers. (2S), (2R), (3S), (3R) and (5R) ketols are obtained along with (2S, 4s) and (3S, 5s) diols often in high optical yields. Chemo-enzymatic methodologies to obtain stereoisomers not reached by direct microbiological reduction are discussed.KEY WORDS Microbiological reduction, acyclic /3-diketones, chiral ketols and diols.Biocatal Biotransformation Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Toronto on 11/05/14For personal use only.
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A. FAUVE AND H. VESCHAMBREcarried out with a 50 m X 0.32 mm Chrompack column filled with 20% Carbowax and with helium as carrier gas at 1-2 kg/cm2. Measurements of enantiomeric excesses were made by using a 26 m x 0.22 mm Chrompack column filled with Chirasil-L-Valine. Conversion yields and enantiomeric excesses were determined with a Shimadzu CR 3A integrator. Column chromatography was performed on Amicon silica gel (70-200 Mesh) with pentanefether as eluent: 90/10 v/v for ketols and 50/50 v/v for diols.Pentane-2,Cdione was a commercial product. Hexane-2 ,Cdione and octane-3,5-dione were prepared according to Adams (Adams and Hauser, 1944) from acetone and ethylpropionate and butane-2-one and ethylbutyrate respectively.No elemental analyses were performed. As the products obtained have already been described, analysis of their retention times, NMR spectra and optical rotation values were considered as sufficient for identification.'H NMR spectra were recorded on Jeol CX 60 and Bruker 300 MSL at 60 MHz and 300 MHz respectively in CDCI, solutions.Optical rotation values were determined on a Perkin-Elmer 141 polarimeter at 25°C in CHC13 and for the mercury J line ( A = 578 nm). Concentrations are given in g/ml.