Identification of novel esterases for the synthesis of sterically demanding chiral alcohols by sequence-structure guided genome mining

Six esterases isolated from sequence and structure-guided genome mining approaches were evaluated for the kinetic resolution of secondary and tertiary alcohols that find application in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Activity and enantioselectivity with E-values of up to 24 were determined towards a range of sterically demanding tertiary alcohol esters. Excellent enantioselectivity (E > 100) was also achieved in the hydrolysis of a less challenging secondary alcohol ester, menthyl acetate. These results highlight that these approaches can be used for the identification of novel esterases applicable to the preparation of commercially desirable alcohols.

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► New esterases were isolated from sequence and structure-guided genome mining.
► Activity towards kinetic resolution of secondary and tertiary alcohols was targeted.
► Products formed find application in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
► Moderate E-values were determined towards sterically demanding substrates.
► Excellent enantioselectivity achieved (E > 100) in the hydrolysis of menthyl acetate.