Enantiospecificity of immobilized horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase.

Horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1) accepts a wide structural range of substrates but exhibits a well-defined and predictable stereospecificity. The enzyme was immobilized on CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. The immobilized preparation was used to oxidize the enantiomeric pair of cis-1,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)-3-cyclopentene enantioselectively to a mixture of two diastereoisomeric chiral lactones. The two diastereoisomeric products are readily separated and each was isolated with an optical yield of greater than 99%.