Bacterial Anabaena variabilis phenylalanine ammonia lyase: A biocatalyst with broad substrate specificity

Phenylalanine ammonia lyases (PALs) catalyse the regio- and stereoselective hydroamination of cinnamic acid analogues to yield optically enriched a-amino acids. Herein, we demonstrate that a liacterial PAL from Anabaena variabilis (AvPAL) displays significantly higher activity towards a series of non-natural substrates than previously described eukaryotic PALs. Biotransformations performed on a preparative scale led to the synthesis of the 2-chloro- and 4-trifluoromethyl-phenylalanine derivatives in excellent ee, highlighting the enormous potential of bacterial PALs as biocatalysts for the synthesis of high value, non-natural amino acids. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.