Synthesis of chiral compounds through biooxidations

Biocatalytic oxidations are increasingly gaining the interest of academia and industry, promoting the rapid development and study of enzymes performing these transformations. Oxidoreductases are readily used for synthesizing chiral compounds due to their various advantages: high specificity and catalytic efficiency, their ability to utilize different forms of oxygen, and, finally, their activity toward a plethora of substrates. They are classified based on their electron-accepting properties, and their different activities are dependent on the enzymes' structure and catalytic mechanism. The products obtained through oxidation can be used for multiple purposes: drug intermediates, cosmetic compounds, polymer building blocks, valorized products of the paper industry, and many more. This chapter will review biooxidative reactions utilized to synthesize relevant chiral compounds, often out of reach of classical chemical synthetic approaches.