Microbial Alkene Epoxidation—Merits and Limitations

Abstract
The direct epoxidation of olefins using monooxygenases offers the realistic prospect of stoichiometric conversion of a pro-chiral substrate into an enantiomerically pure product. A number of microbial systems are available in which the mechanism of oxygen activation, and consequently the oxygen reactivity, differs. This paper discusses some of the merits and potential problems associated with these different systems.