The generation of a steroid library using filamentous fungi immobilized in calcium alginate

• Encapsulation of macerated fungal hyphae in calcium alginate beads.
• Use of mixtures of beads from two immobilized fungi to carry out biotransformations.
• First report where encapsulated fungi have generated a library of compounds.

Four fungi, namely, Rhizopus oryzae ATCC 11145, Mucor plumbeus ATCC 4740, Cunninghamella echinulata var. elegans ATCC 8688a, and Whetzelinia sclerotiorum ATCC 18687, were subjected to entrapment in calcium alginate, and the beads derived were used in the biotransformation of the steroids 3β,17β-dihydroxyandrost-5-ene (1) and 17β-hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one (2). Incubations performed utilized beads from two different encapsulated fungi to explore their potential for the production of metabolites other than those derived from the individual fungi. The investigation showed that steroids from both single and crossover transformations were typically produced, some of which were hitherto unreported. The results indicated that this general technique can be exploited for the production of small libraries of compounds.

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