Patent ID: 8008051

Claim:
A method for enantioselective ester hydrolysis using a protein, wherein a) the protein is contacted with a stereoisomer mixture of an optically active ester of the formula I R 1 —COO—R 2 (I), in which R 1 is a straight-chain or branched, unsubstituted or mono-substituted or polysubstituted C 1 -C 10 -alkyl, C 2 -C 10 -alkenyl, C 2 -C 10 -alkynyl, R 2 is a straight-chain or branched, unsubstituted or mono-substituted or polysubstituted C 1 -C 10 -alkyl, C 2 -C 10 -alkenyl, C 2 -C 10 -alkynyl, C 7 -C 15 -aralkyl or a mononuclear or polynuclear, unsubstituted or monosubstituted or polysubstituted aromatic radical, and R 1 and/or R 2 include at least one asymmetric carbon; and b) the optically active compounds arising from the stereoselective hydrolysis of any of the stereoisomers and/or the non-hydrolyzed ester enantiomer are obtained from the reaction medium, and wherein the protein has esterase activity, and the protein comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO.: 7, or comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 95% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO.: 7.