Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.140, No.2, 546-549, 2018
Enantioselective Desymmetrization of Methylenedianilines via Enzyme-Catalyzed Remote Halogenation
Extensive effort has been devoted to engineering flavin-dependent halogenases (FDHs) with improved stability, expanded substrate scope, and altered regioselectivity. Here, we show that variants of rebeccamycin halogenase (RebH) catalyze enantioselective desymmetrization of methylenedianilines via halogenation of these substrates distal to their pro-stereogenic center. Structure-guided engineering was used to increase the conversion and selectivity of these reactions, and the synthetic utility of the halogenated products was shown via conversion of to a chiral alpha-substituted indole. These results constitute the first reported examples of asymmetric catalysis by FDHs.