Diversity of Nitrilase Sequences

Nitrilases are classified into branch 1 of the nitrilase superfamily, which is comprised of enzymes acting on various nonpeptide CN bonds [15]. All the proteins of this superfamily are characterized by a conserved catalytic triade (glu, lys, cys) and an additional conserved glu residue that seems to participate in the reaction mechanism [2]. Members of class 1 transform the CN bonds in nitriles and cyanides. The enzymes in which these activities were confirmed share in some cases levels of aa sequence identity as low as about 20%. This sequence diversity is reflected in different substrate specificities and different reaction products (carboxylic acids, amides) in various subtypes of these enzymes (aromatic nitrilases, aliphatic nitrilases, arylacetonitrilases, cyanide hydratases, cyanide dihydratases). 

Cyanide hydratase Aspergillus nidulans FGSC A4 tpe CBF78050.1 [5] 

There are many examples of nitrilase-catalyzed reactions in which amides form a considerable amount of the reaction products, such as the transformations of acrylonitrile analogs and a-fluoroarylacetonitriles by nitrilase 1 from Arabidopsis thaliana [17], the conversion of p-cyano-L-alanine into a mixture of L-asparagine and L-aspartic acid by nitrilase 4 from the same organism [18] or the transformations of mandelonitrile by nitrilase from Pseudomonas jhiorescens [19] or some fungi [8], Moreover, formamide is the only product of the cyanide transformation by cyanide hydratase. Therefore, this enzyme was classified as a lyase (EC 4.2.1.66), although it is closely related to nitrilases, as far as its aa sequence and reaction mechanism are concerned [3]. 

Cyanide dihydratases also act on cyanide but convert it into formiate and ammonia, and can be therefore classified as hydrolases. 

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