Significantly enhancing the biocatalytic synthesis of chiral alcohols by semi-rationally engineering an anti-Prelog carbonyl reductase from Acetobacter sp. CCTCC M209061

Chiral alcohols and their derivatives are vital building blocks to synthesize pharmaceutical drugs and high-valued chemicals. Wild-type carbonyl reductase AcCR from Acetobacter sp. has ideal enantioselectivity toward 11 prochiral substrates (e.e.>99%) but poor activity. In this work, a semi-rational engineering was performed to enhance the activity of AcCR. Fortunately, three positive double-mutants (mut-E144A/G152 L, mut-G152 L/Y189 N, and mut-I147 V/G152 L) with specific activity 17–61 folds higher than that of enzyme without modified were achieved. Kinetic studies suggested that the catalytic efficiencies (kcat/Km) of these mutants were also well enhanced. Finally, these modified mut-AcCRs were successfully applied in asymmetric reductions of 11 structurally diverse prochiral substrates (200 mM) with excellent product yields (76.8%–99.1%) and enantiomeric excess (e.e.>99%), which provides an alternative strategy for efficient synthesis of chiral alcohols for pharmaceuticals industry with ideal yield and enantioselectivity.