Recent Developments and Prospects in the Enzymatic Acylations

Enzymatic acylations catalyzed by hydrolytic enzymes, along with enzymatic hydrolysis, are established reactions in the synthesis of fine chemicals such as chiral intermediates and polymerizations in the industry. Those reactions have been carried out mostly in organic media due to the thermodynamic limitations. Recently, there have been reports on enzymatic acylations in aqueous media. They have dealt with the elucidation of reaction mechanisms of hydrolases and acyl transferases based on their X-ray structures, homology comparison of the two kinds of enzymes, substrate engineering of acyl donors and computational design of acyl transferases for enzymatic acylations in aqueous media. Enzymatic acylations play an important role in the combinatorial synthesis of natural products such as polyketides and nonribosomal peptides. In this review, the historic developments of enzymatic acylations and industrial examples are described briefly. In addition, recent developments of enzymatic acylations in the modification of natural products and their prospects will be discussed.