Directed Evolution Strategies for Enantiocomplementary Haloalkane Dehalogenases: From Chemical Waste to Enantiopure Building Blocks (original) (raw)

Directed evolution was utilized to generate enantiocomplementary variants of haloalkane dehalogenases capable of converting the toxic compound 1,2,3-trichloropropane into enantiomerically pure 2,3-dichloropropan-1-ol. A systematic approach incorporating site-saturation and site-restricted mutagenesis led to variants achieving enantioselectivities of 90% and 97% for (R)- and (S)-epichlorohydrin, respectively. The findings demonstrate the potential of directed evolution strategies to tailor biocatalysts for the production of enantiopure building blocks from chemical waste.