A novel whole cell system based on recombinantly expressed 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT) was developed and shown to be an effective biocatalyst for the asymmetric Michael addition of acetaldehyde to beta-nitrostyrenes. Optimal ratio of substrates (2 mM beta-nitrostyrenes and 20 mM acetaldehyde) and biocatalyst of 5 g of cell dry weight of biocatalyst per liter was determined. Through further bioprocess improvement by sequential addition of substrate 10 mM nitrostyrene biotransformation was achieved within 150 min. Excellent enantioselectivity (>99% ee) and product yields of up to 60% were obtained with beta-nitrostyrene substrate. The biotransformation product, 4-nitro-3-phenyl-butanal, was isolated from aqueous media and further transformed into the corresponding amino alcohol. The biocatalyst exhibited lower reaction rates with p-Cl-, o-Cl- and p-F-beta-nitrostyrenes with product yields of 38%, 51%, 31% and ee values of 84%, 88% and 94% respectively. The importance of the terminal,proline of 4-UT was confirmed by two proline enriched variants and homology modeling. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.