Biocatalytic processes are increasingly used in organic synthesis for the preparation of targeted molecules or the generation of molecular diversity. The search for the biocatalyst is often the bottleneck in the development of the process. We described a combinatorial approach for the selection of active strains from a library of microorganisms. In order to show the potential of the method we applied it to a mixture of substrates. We were able to select yeast strains capable of producing enantiopure alcohol from corresponding ketones with very few tests and highlight tandem reaction sequences involving several microorganisms. We demonstrate an interest in the kinetic study and the importance of incubation conditions. This approach is a promising tool for generating new products.
Keywords: deracemization; enantioselective oxidation; tandem biocatalysis; whole cell screening.