Front Cover Picture: Bioproduction of Enantiopure (R)‐ and (S)‐2‐Phenylglycinols from Styrenes and Renewable Feedstocks (Adv. Synth. Catal. 7/2021)

Abstract

The front cover picture illustrates whole cells-based cascade reactions to produce (R)- and (S)-2-phenylglycinols from simple chemicals. Artificial enzyme cascades were developed for the one-pot green syntheses of (R)- and (S)-2-phenylglycinols from bio-based L-phenylalanine. Natural L-phenylalanine biosynthesis pathway was coupled with artificial cascades to directly convert renewable feedstocks such as glucose and glycerol to (R)- and (S)-2-phenylglycinols. Engineering of new artificial enzyme cascades enabled the one-pot high-yielding synthesis of several enantiopure 2-phenylglycinols and 1-amino-2-indanol from simple petrochemicals such as styrenes and indene. Details can be found in the Full Paper by Z. Li and co-workers (B. S. Sekar, J. Mao, B. R. Lukito, Z. Wang, Z. Li, Adv. Synth. Catal. 2021, 363, 1892–1903; DOI: 10.1002/adsc.202001322).