Use of the anti-Prelog stereospecific alcohol dehydrogenase from Leifsonia and Pseudomonas for producing chiral alcohols.

The asymmetric reduction of ketones is one of the most promising processes for producing chiral alcohols. However, dehydrogenases or reductases that can catalyze the reduction of ketones to give anti-Prelog chiral alcohols have been limited to some NADP(+)/NADPH-dependent enzymes. Recently, we reported a novel NAD(+)/NADH-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) from Leifsonia sp. and Pseudomonas ADH homologs from soil metagenomes. Moreover, we have established an efficient hydrogen-transfer bioreduction process with 2-propanol as a hydrogen donor using Leifsonia ADH. This review focuses on the recent development of novel ADHs for producing industrially useful anti-Prelog chiral alcohols from various ketones.