NOVEL BIOSYNTHETIC APPROACHES TO THE PRODUCTION OF UNNATURAL AMINO-ACIDS USING TRANSAMINASES

Transaminase enzymes are being increasingly applied to the large-scale synthesis of unnatural and nonproteinogenic amino acids. Typically di splaying relaxed substrate specificity, rapid reaction rates and lacki ng the need for cofactor regeneration, they possess many characteristi cs that make them desirable as effective biocatalysts. By judiciously combining the transaminase reaction with additional enzymatic steps, t his approach can be used very efficiently to prepare a broad range of D- and L-amino acids.