Asymmetric synthesis of tert-butyl (3R, 5S) 6-chloro-dihydroxyhexanoate with Lactobacillus kefir.

An efficient whole cell biotransformation process using Lactobacillus kefir was developed for the asymmetric synthesis of tert-butyl (3R, 5S) 6-chloro-dihydroxyhexanoate, a chiral building block for the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor. The effects of buffer concentration, temperature, pH and oxygen on the asymmetric reduction were investigated in batch reactions. Improvements in final product concentration and yields of 153% (120 mM) and 79% (0.85 mol/mol) with respect to the batch-process were achieved in an optimised fed-batch process. The pure substrate tert-butyl-6-chloro-3,5-dioxohexanoate was dispersed as microdroplets into the reaction system. This resulted in a space-time yield of 4.7 mmol l(-1) h(-1). A diastereomeric excess of >99% was measured for (3R, 5S) and (3S, 5S) tert-butyl 6-chloro-dihydroxyhexanoate.