Abstract
Microbial transformations of steroids are part of the larger class of organic chemical reactions that are catalyzed by enzymes. The microorganisms function as a convenient source of the required enzymes and, in some cases, provide identifiable reagent species that act on the steroid in the presence of the enzyme or contribute to the regeneration of the active site on the enzyme. The fact that the reactions are indeed enzymatic has been proved in several cases by the isolation of the crystalline enzyme from the microbial species and by the subsequent transformation of the steroid in vitro, using the crystalline enzyme and an added reagent. The resulting transformation was identical with that obtained employing the intact microbial system with the same substrate. This chapter discusses the chemical classification of microbial transformations of steroids, classes of chemical reactions, esterification of steroid alcohols, and hydrolysis of oxides to alcohols. It also discusses some of the reaction classes, such as Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement, decarboxylation, aldol and reverse aldol reactions, and Michael addition.
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