Chemo-biological preparation of the chiral building block (R)-4-acetoxy-2-methyl-1-butanol using Pseudomonas putida

In order to develop new methyl substituted chiral building blocks which are useful for the synthesis of methyl branched natural products, the enantioselective bioreduction of an exo-methylene to a methyl group was investigated. 4-Acetoxy-2-methylene-1-butanol 3 was prepared from itaconic acid over four steps and converted to the chiral alcohol (R)-4-acetoxy-2-methyl-1-butanol 4, by growing cells of Pseudomonas putida. The bioconversion achieved a high enantioselectivity (92% ee) and a high chemical yield (65%) within a relatively short reaction time (18–20 h).