Patent ID: 8455223

Claim:
A method for the microbiological preparation of a substituted alkanol of formula I in which n is an integer from 0 to 5; Cyc is an optionally-substituted mononuclear or polynuclear, saturated or unsaturated, carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring, and R 1 is a halogen, SH, OH, NO 2 , NR 2 R 3 or NR 2 R 3 R 4+ X − , whereby R 2 , R 3 and R 4 independently are H or a lower alkyl or a lower alkoxy radical and X − is a counterion, wherein, in a medium comprising an alkanone of formula II in which n, Cyc and R 1 are as defined above, the method comprises a) culturing a microorganism, whereby the microorganism produces a dehydrogenase having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, and wherein the dehydrogenase reduces 3-methylamino-1-(2-thienyl)-propan-1-one to the corresponding S-alcohol with at least 50% of the activity of the dehydrogenase having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, or b) incubating the dehydrogenase of a), whereby the dehydrogenase catalyzes enzymatic reduction of the compound of formula II to the compound of formula I; and c) isolating the reduced compound of formula I.