Enantioselectivity of lipases : Effects of water activity

The enantioselectivity (E) of lipases in esterifications of secondary alcohols with decanoic acid was studied in organic media. The enantioselectivity of 2-octanol differed greatly among the lipases used. Candida antarctica lipase was extremely selective (E= 9 000) while Candida rugosa lipase was mu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic
Main Authors: Wehtje, Ernst, Costes, David, Adlercreutz, Patrick
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 1997
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Online Access:https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3c828615-da85-41e3-9c4f-5d900e591b31
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1381-1177(97)00003-9
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Summary:The enantioselectivity (E) of lipases in esterifications of secondary alcohols with decanoic acid was studied in organic media. The enantioselectivity of 2-octanol differed greatly among the lipases used. Candida antarctica lipase was extremely selective (E= 9 000) while Candida rugosa lipase was much less selective (E= 1.7). Other enzymes (Lipozyme and lipases from Pseudomonas and Rhizopus arrhizus) had intermediate selectivities. In all cases the enantioselectivity for an enzyme was unaffected by changes in water activity. Different methods of determining the enantioselectivity was used: reactions using single enantiomers as well as racemic mixtures. The effect of water activity on enantioselectivity and the enanatioselectivity values themselves were similar irrespective of the method used. The enantioselectivity of other alcohols were also found to be unaffected by the water activity. The enantioselectivity of Pseudomonas lipase was influenced by the organic solvent. The E decreased with increasing hydrophobicity, from 62 in acetonitrile to 40 in toluene and 33 in hexane. In none of these cases was the enantioselectivity affected by the water activity. However, for Lipozyme and Candida rugosa lipase in toluene a trend of increased E with increasing water activity was observed. In summary it can be stated that the water activity does not generally affect the enantioselectivity of the five lipases tested.