Photosynthetic organisms play important roles in carbon dioxide absorption as well as in utilization of solar energy on the earth. The additional value on the ecological aspect would make photosynthetic organisms the next-generation of a biocatalyst from the standpoint of green chemistry. The photosynthetic organism as a biocatalyst can be called 'Photobiocatalyst'. Photobiocatalyst produces reduction power; NADPH through photosynthesis and the NADPH can be used for the reduction of exogenous substrates. Generally, the cofactor recycling system should be artificcially designed in biocatalysis. On the other hand, the photobiocatalysis provide the cofactor (NADPH) recycling by the native system, photosynthesis under illumination without any additives.We report here asymmetric reduction of zingerone by a microalga; Synechococcus PCC7942. Zingerone is a key component of the pungency of ginger and the reduction product; zingerol has chirality and may have interesting and useful bioactivities.As a result, the reduction of zingerone by Synechococcus PCC7942 proceeded with high enantioselectivity (>99% ee (S)) under illumination. The reaction utilized light energy effectively. We also found that cultivation condition affects the photobiocatalysis.

Asymmetric reduction of zingerone by a photobiocatalyst

248th National Meeting (2014)

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