• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.490-494
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• 2016

This paper describes the very efficient and highly enantioselective ring opening of terminal epoxides with alkyl and arene sulfonic acid. The dinuclear chiral (salen) Co complexes bearing Lewis acids of Al, Ga and In catalyze the reaction enantioselectively in the presence of tetrabutylammonium chloride using tert-butyl methyl ether as a solvent. The variation of the anion of the tetra butyl ammonium salt has significant impact on the reactivity and selectivity of the asymmetric ring opening of phenyl glycidyl ether with p-toluenesulfonic acid. The order of reactivity and selectivity was found to be $Cl^-$ > $l^-$ > $Br^-$ > $OH^-$. Strong synergistic effects of the different Lewis acid centers of Co-Al, Co-Ga and Co-In complexes were observed in the catalytic process. The dinuclear chiral salen catalyst containing $AlCl_3$ was found to be most active and highly enantioselective (91% ee).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1445-1452
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• 2008

An open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative epoxide hydrolase (EHase) was identified by analyzing the genome sequence of Sphingophyxis alaskensis. The EHase gene (seh) was cloned and expressed in E. coli. To facilitate purification, the gene was fused in-frame to 6$\times$ histidine at the C-terminus. The recombinant EHase (rSEH) was highly soluble and could be purified to apparent homogeneity by one step of metal affinity chromatography. The purified SEH displayed hydrolyzing activities toward various epoxides such as styrene oxide, glycidyl phenyl ether, epoxyhexane, epoxybutane, epichlorohydrin, and epifluorohydrin. The optimum activity toward styrene oxide was observed at pH 6.5 and $35^{\circ}C$. The purified SEH showed a cold-adapted property, displaying more than 40% of activity at low temperature of $10^{\circ}C$ compared with the optimum activity. Despite the catalytic efficiency, the purified SEH did not hydrolyze various epoxides enantioselectively. $K_m$ and $k_{cat}$ of SEH toward (R)-styrene oxide were calculated as 4$\pm$0.3 mM and 7.42$s^{-1}$ respectively, whereas $K_m$ and $k_{cat}$ of SEH toward (S)-styrene oxide were 5.25$\pm$0.3 mM and 10.08$s^{-1}$ respectively.