PRODUCTION OF OPTICALLY ACTIVE 2-HYDROXYCYCLOALKANECARBOXYLIC ACID ESTER

PURPOSE:To easily produce the objective ester in high efficiency by carrying out the asymmetric reduction of a 2-oxocycloalkanecarboxylic acid ester(OAE) with bacteria (or its treated product). CONSTITUTION:The objective (1R,2S)-2-hydroxycycloalkanecarboxylic acid ester of formula ((n) is number of methylene groups; R is ester-forming group) is produced by culturing a bacterial strain of the genus Klebsiella, etc., such as Klebsiella pneumoniae to obtain bacterial cell (or its treated product) (A), adding 1-6wt.% of a hydrogen donor such as glucose to a reaction liquid containing 0.1-3wt.% of OAE (B), adding 0.5-8g (in terms of dry weight based on 1g of the component B used as a substrate) of the component A to the mixture to obtain a reaction mixture (C), subjecting the mixture C to asymmetric reduction at 25-50 deg.C and pH5-9 for 2-96hr and finally subjecting the obtained reaction product (D) to extraction, concentration and purification.