Industrial methods for the production of optically active intermediates.

Enantiomerically pure amino acids, amino alcohols, amines, alcohols, and epoxides play an increasingly important role as intermediates in the pharmaceutical industry and agrochemistry, where both a high degree of purity and large quantities of the compounds are required. The chemical industry has primarily relied upon established chemical methods for the synthesis of these intermediates, but is now turning more and more to enzymatic and biotechnological fermentation processes. For the industrial implementation of many transformations alternative methods are available.

Studies on the isopropylbenzene 2,3-dioxygenase and the 3-isopropylcatechol 2,3-dioxygenase genes encoded by the linear plasmid of Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2.

The enzymes responsible for the degradation of isopropylbenzene (IPB) and co-oxidation of trichloroethene (TCE) by Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2 are encoded by the linear plasmid pBD2. Fragments containing IPB catabolic genes were cloned from pBD2 and the nucleotide sequence was determined. By means of database searches and expression of the cloned genes in recombinant strains, we identified five clustered genes, ipbA1A2A3A4C, which encode the three components of the IPB 2,3-dioxygenase system, reductaseIPB (ipbA4), ferredoxinIPB (ipbA3) and the two subunits of the terminal dioxygenase (ipbA1A2), as well as the 3-isopropylcatechol (IPC) 2,3-dioxygenase (ipbC).

Identification and characterization of a transmissible linear plasmid from Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2 that encodes isopropylbenzene and trichloroethene catabolism.

Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2, which is able to utilize isopropylbenzene as a sole carbon and energy source, was shown to contain a conjugative linear plasmid, pBD2. The estimated size of pBD2 is 208 to 212 kb. Linear plasmid-deficient strains had lost both the isopropylbenzene degradation and trichloroethene degradation characteristics, as well as the arsenite resistance and mercury resistance phenotypes.