Directed evolution of enantioselective enzymes for organic chemistry

The production of enantiopure compounds is of steadily increasing importance to the chemical and biotechnological industries. In principal, the application of directed evolution in combination with newly developed screening methods enables the generation of enzymes with improved enantioselectivity. The first and most advanced example relates to a bacterial lipase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This enzyme was evolved towards a model substrate to yield in a lipase mutant showing >90% enantiomeric excess as compared to 2% for the wild-type lipase. The creation of enantioselective enzymes by directed evolution will become an important technology in the near future.