Novel hydrolases from thermophilic filamentous fungi for enantiomerically and enantiotopically selective Biotransformations

Fourteen thermophilic filamentous fungi were cultivated on two shake flask media and the supernatants were assayed for lipase/carboxylesterase activities using olive-oil, p-nitrophenyl palmitate and p-nitrophenyl butyrate as substrates. The crude enzyme powders (acetone precipitated supernatants) were tested as biocatalysts in organic solvents. Kinetic resolution of racemic 1-phenylethanol (rac-1) and desymmetrisation of 2-acyloxypropan-1,3-diols (3a, b) by acetylation with vinyl acetate were chosen for testing the biocatalytic abilities of these preparations. The tested biocatalysts proved to be comparable to the commercially available enzymes with respect to the degree of enantiomer selectivity, whereas they exhibited a wider range of enantiotopic selectivity than the most common commercial enzymes.