Enzymatic Synthesis of Aliphatic Primary ω-Amino Alcohols from ω-Amino Fatty Acids by Carboxylic Acid Reductase

Medium to long chain aliphatic amino alcohols have numerous applications in polymer-based industries. We herein report a biocatalytic reduction of amino fatty acids into corresponding amino alcohols using carboxylic acid reductase and E coli endogenous aldehyde reductases. Interestingly, employing this reaction in tandem with minimizing the hurdle of substrate insolubility, the biocatalysts successfully produced 5.76 mM 12-amino-1-dodecanol from 10 mM of corresponding 12-amino-dodecanoic acid. Finally, up to 9.17 mM of 8-amino-1-octanol was obtained in 24 h on a preparative scale reaction of 50 mM substrate. Graphic Abstract