United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Zhongqi He

Jim C Spain

Lloyd J Nadeau

A process for the production of ortho-aminophenols from nitroarenes using a biocatalyst consisting of pure enzymes, partially purified enzymes, cell lysate, intact cells, or a metal reaction linked with a subsequent enzymatic reaction. The biocatalyst is an enzyme system that makes use of a nitroreductase enzyme that initially reduces the nitroarene to the hydroxylaminoarene and a mutase enzyme that converts the hydroxylaminoarene to an ortho-aminophenol. The biocatalyst can also consist of a coupled, two-step metal and enzyme reaction in which the metal, such as zinc, catalyzes the transformation of the nitroarene to the hydroxylaminoarene and the mutase then catalyzes the transformation of hydroxylaminoarene to the corresponding ortho-aminophenol.

Biological process for the production of ortho-aminophenols from nitroaromatic compounds using mutase

A method for the preparation of 2-aminomuconate which comprises adding 2-aminophenol to a mixture of 2-aminophenol 1,6-dioxygenase, 2-aminomuconic semialdehyde dehydrogenase and NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, oxidized form) in a buffer, and recovering a fraction containing 2-aminomuconate from the mixture.

Growing community of inventors

Glenburn, ME, United States of America

Zhongqi He