Patent ID: 7250278

Claim:
An isolated α-keto acid reductase having the following physicochemical properties: (i) function: reduces α-keto acid to (R)-α-hydroxy acid using reduced β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide as the coenzyme; and (ii) substrate specificity: (a) utilizes reduced β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide as the coenzyme in the reduction reaction of (i); (b) reduces 2-chlorophenyl glyoxylic acid to (R)-2-chloromandelic acid; and (c) reduces 2-chlorophenyl glyoxylic acid but the dehydrogenase activity of said α-keto acid reductase against either of the two optical isomers of 2-chloromandelic acid is no more than 20% taking the relative activity of said α-keto acid reductase to reduce 2-chlorophenyl glyoxylic acid, wherein said α-keto acid reductase is encoded by a polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of: (1) a polynucleotide comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1; (2) a polynucleotide encoding a protein comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2; and (3) a polynucleotide encoding an amino acid sequence comprising an amino acid sequence at least 95% homologous to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2.