Production of optically pure molecules by biotransformation of agro-food wastes.

Biocatalysis is nowadays an established technology for the production of chemicals. Biotransformations are performed under mild conditions and can be highly selective; Biocatalysts are currently employed for the production of products in different fields, such as pharmaceuticals or intermediate for their production (e.g., antibiotics, statins, enantiomerically pure building blocks), fine chemicals (e.g., aminoacids, vitamins) and food manufacture (e.g., sweeteners, lipids, nutraceuticals). Stereoselectivity is a key-issue in most of the bioprocesses developed for transformations of organic molecules. Methods based on biocatalysis can further broaden their applicability and meet criteria of sustainability if efficiently employed for the transformation of cheaply available agro-food wastes and surplus, such as starch, molasses, cheap proteins and lipids. The application of recombinant technologies and protein engineering has dramatically widened the potential of biotransformations. Examples of classical and new bioprocesses are reported, highlighting the improvements given by an integrated application of different strategies (molecular biology, extractive systems, immobilization etc.) for their optmization.