A new approach to preparative enzymatic synthesis. Reprinted from Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. XIX, No. 9, Pages 1351-1361.

A new approach to preparative organic synthesis in aqueous-organic systems is suggested. It is based on the idea that the enzymatic process is carried out in a biphasic system "water-water-immiscible organic solvent." Thereby the enzyme is localized in the aqueous phase-this eliminates the traditional problem of stabilizing the enzymes against inactivation by a nonaqueous solvent. Hence, in contrast to the commonly used combinations "water-water-miscible organic solvent," in the suggested system the content of water may be infinitely low. This allows one to dramatically shift the equilibrium of the reactions forming water as a reaction product (synthesis of esters and amides, polymerization of amino acids, sugars and nucleotides, dehydration reactions, etc.) toward the products. The fact that the system consists of two phases provides another very important sources for an equilibrium shift, i.e., free energies of the transfer of a reagent from one phase to the other. Equations are derived describing the dependence of the equilibrium constant in a biphasic system on the ratio of the volumes of the aqueous and nonaqueous phases and the partition coefficients of the reagents between the phases. The approach has been experimentally verified with the synthesis of N-acetyl-L-tryptophan ethyl ester from the respective alcohol and acid. Porous glass was impregnated with aqueous buffer solution of chymotrypsin and suspended in chloroform containing N-acetyl-L-tryptophan and ethanol. In water (no organic phase) the yield of the ester is about 0.01%, whereas in this biphasic system it is practically 100%. The idea is applicable to a great number of preparative enzymatic reactions.