Home» News» 【Muxing·Climbing to the Top】The Food Processing and Safety Control Research Team of HEBUST Published Its Latest Research in Green Chemistry

Recently, the Food Processing and Safety Control research team from the College of Food Science and Biology achieved new progress in the multi-enzyme cascade synthesis of chiral aryl β-hydroxy-α-aminobutyric acids. Their study titled “An artificial biocatalytic cascade for the synthesis of aryl L-threo-β- hydroxy- α -aminobutyric acids via a carbon-chain extension strategy” was published in the prestigious chemistry journal Green Chemistry. Sisi Zhang, a graduate student of the School of Food and Biological Sciences, is the paper’s lead author, with Prof. Jianxiong Hao and Assoc. Prof. Qijia Chen serving as corresponding authors.

Chiral aryl β-hydroxy-α-aminobutyric acids (β-HABAs) and their derivatives are essential building blocks for numerous active ingredients in chemicals, pharmaceuticals and bioactive natural products. Developing efficient synthesis methods for stereoselectively constructing C–C bonds of aryl β-HABAs from readily available substrates is of great significance. Herein, we developed an artificial biocatalytic cascade to synthesize β-HABA analogues from achiral benzaldehyde derivatives, glycine, and L-threonine. This one-pot, two-stage biotransformation was achieved using a modular cascade approach to catalyze the synthesis  chiral aryl β-hydroxy-α-aminobutyric acids and their homologues from benzaldehyde derivatives, glycine, and L-threonine, which involved two whole-cell catalysis systems (WCCSs): (i) aldol addition and dehydration to yield the corresponding α-keto acids and (ii) decarboxylation, transaldolation, oxidation, and coenzyme regeneration to produce aryl β-HABAs. The cascade reaction was successfully applied to synthesize aryl L-threo-β-HABAs functionalized with p-F, p-Cl, p-Br, p-NO2 and p-CF3 in >99% de and >99% yield. Therefore, this biocatalytic process presents an attractive strategy for converting low-cost substrates into chiral aryl β-HABAs by effectively managing the unstable aryl acetaldehyde intermediates.

This research was supported by multiple funding sources including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Hebei Key Research and Development Program, Yanzhao Golden Terrace Key Talent Program, and Hebei Natural Science Foundation.

Paper Link：https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/gc/d4gc06301e