A chemo-enzymatic cascade for the one-pot synthesis of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate and 1-deoxy-d-xylulose

A chemo-enzymatic cascade for the one-pot preparation of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) and 1-deoxy-d-xylulose (DX) from stable, cheap, and easily available starting material R-glycidol is reported. The epoxide ring of R-glycidol was opened with phosphate to generate l-glycerol 3-phosphate, which was subsequently converted into the target molecules by combination of multi-enzymatic reactions in the same flask with purified overall yields of 27.6% (DXP) and 33% (DX), respectively. This approach represents the first one-pot chemo-enzymatic synthesis of these two biologically important compounds.