Reshaping the Active Pocket of Amine Dehydrogenases for Asymmetric Synthesis of Bulky Aliphatic Amines

The asymmetric reductive amination of ketones with ammonia using engineered amine dehydrogenases (AmDHs) is a particularly attractive and environmentally friendly method for the synthesis of chiral amines. However, one major challenge for these engineered AmDHs is their limited range of accepted substrates. Herein, several engineered AmDHs were developed through the evolution of naturally occurring leucine dehydrogenases, which displayed good amination activity toward aliphatic ketones but restricted catalytic scope for short-chain substrates. Computational analysis helped identify two residues, located at the distal end of the substrate-binding cavity, that generate steric hindrance and prevent the binding of bulky aliphatic ketones. By fine-tuning these two key hotspots, the resulting AmDH mutants are able to accept previously inaccessible bulky substrates. More importantly, the mutations were also proved applicable for expanding the substrate scope of other homologous AmDHs with sequence identities as low as 70%, indicating a broad effect on the development of AmDHs and the synthesis of structurally diverse chiral amines.