Enzymatic method for producing l-glufosinate and its phosphoesters

An enzymatically catalyzed method for producing L-glufosinate or a phosphoester thereof, comprising:

• (a) reacting an activated L-homoserine HA with a substrate S of the following structure (I),
• to produce a compound of the following structure (III)
• wherein R1 is selected from hydrogen, alkyl, alkenyl, alkinyl, hydroxyalkyl, aryl;
• and
• wherein the activated L-homoserine HA has the following structure (II):
• wherein R2 is a hydrocarbon group with 1 to 15 carbon atoms which optionally comprises at least one functional group selected from OH, COOH, NH;
• and
• wherein the reaction in (a) is enzymatically catalyzed by a sulfhydrylase E1;
• wherein the sulfhydrylase enzyme E1 has a polypeptide sequence selected from the group consisting of;
• SEQ ID NO:
• 5 and variants of SEQ ID NO:
• 5, SEQ ID NO:
• 6 and variants of SEQ ID NO:
• 6, SEQ ID NO:
• 7 and variants of SEQ ID NO:
• 7, SEQ ID NO:
• 8 and variants of SEQ ID NO:
• 8.