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Asymmetric Epoxidation and Sulfoxidation Catalyzed by a New Styrene Monooxygenase fromBradyrhizobium

Update time: 01/19/2021
 Asymmetric epoxidation catalyzed with styrene monooxygenase (SMO) is a powerful enzymatic process producing enantiopure styrene epoxide derivatives. To establish a more diversified reservoir of SMOs, a new SMO fromBradyrhizobiumsp. ORS 375, namedBrSMO, was mined from the database and characterized.BrSMO was constituted of an epoxygenase component of 415 amino acid residues and an NADH-dependent flavin reductase component of 175 residues.BrSMO catalyzed the epoxidation of styrene and 7 more styrene derivatives, yielding the corresponding (S)-epoxides with excellent enantiomeric excesses (95- > 99% ee), with the highest activity achieved for styrene.BrSMO also catalyzed the asymmetric sulfoxidation of 7 sulfides, producing the corresponding (R)-sulfoxides (20-90% ee) with good yields.