Nitrilases

Nitrilases catalyze the synthetically important hydrolysis of nitriles with formation of the corresponding carboxylic acids [4]. Scientists at Diversa expanded the collection of nitrilases by metagenome panning [56]. Nevertheless, in numerous cases the usual limitations of enzyme catalysis become visible, including poor or only moderate enantioselectivity, limited activity (substrate acceptance), and/or product inhibition. Diversa also reported the first example of the directed evolution of an enantioselective nitrilase [20]. An additional limitation had to be overcome, which is sometimes ignored, when enzymes are used as catalysts in synthetic organic chemistry product inhibition and/or decreased enantioselectivity at high substrate concentrations [20]. 

Upon screening genomic libraries obtained from environmental samples, more than 200 new nitrilases that allow mild and selective hydrolysis of nitriles were discovered [56]. One of them catalyzes the (R)-selective hydrolysis of (16) with a value 

The system works even at 3 M substrate concentration with 90% conversion, 98.5%ee, and essentially no substrate inhibition. Volumetric productivity, which is of great importance in any industrial application, was enhanced by the process of directed evolution [20]. 

Sortis, Torvast, etc), the first pharmaceutical product to exceed yearly sales exceeding the value of 10 billion per year. 

In the screening of genomic libraries prepared from environmental samples collected in various parts of the world, more than 200 new nitrilases were discovered that allow mild and selective hydrolysis of nitriles (150). One of them catalyzes the (J )-selective hydrolysis of 35 with an ee value of 94.5% at a substrate concentration of 100 mM (46). However, when experiments were done at a more practical concentration of 2.25 M, activity and enantioselectivity suffered (ee only 87.8%). 

Therefore, directed evolution was applied to solve these problems. To screen for enantioselectivity, the Miilheim MS-based high-throughput ee assay (92,93) (Section III.C) was applied (46). In this case, the necessary isotope labeling focused on the use of in the pseudo-meso compound N-(J )-17 (see Section III.C for a detailed discussion). An (5)-selective nitrilase leads preferentially to N-(5)-18, whereas an 7 -selective variant results in the picw o-enantiomer (J )-18. They differ by one mass unit and can therefore be distinguished by MS, both qualitatively and quantitatively (by integration of the relevant peaks). 

A different method consisting of directed evolution was used with the nitrilases from P. fluorescens [26] and Alcaligenes faecalis [27]. The amide production by the former and the operational stability of the latter at a low pH were improved in this 

12 NITRILE-CONVERTING ENZYMES AND THEIR SYNTHETIC APPLICATIONS 

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Several classes of enzymes have been used to separate stereoisomers of a-H-and a-disubstituted amino acids, eg amidases, nitrilases, hydantoinases, acylases and esterases. 

Hie bioconversion of a-aminonitriles, although up until now not used on an industrial scale, is of practical interest in the production of optical active a-amino adds. This, however, will only be the case if one can select a nitrilase that enantioselectively hydrolyses die aminonitrile. 

As illustrated in Figure A8.3 nitrilases catalyse conversions of nitriles directly into the corresponding carboxylic adds (route A), while other nitrile converting enzymes, die nitrile hydratases, catalyse the conversion of nitriles into amides (route B) which, by the action of amidases usually present in the whole cell preparations, are readily transformed into carboxylic adds (route C). 

L-Amino adds could be produced from D,L-aminonitriles with 50% conversion using Pseudomonas putida and Brembacterium sp respectively, the remainder being the corresponding D-amino add amide. However, this does not prove the presence of a stereoselective nitrilase. It is more likely that the nitrile hydratase converts the D,L-nitrile into the D,L-amino add amide, where upon a L-spedfic amidase converts the amide further into 50% L-amino add and 50% D-amino add amide. In this respect the method has no real advantage over the process of using a stereospecific L-aminopeptidase (vide supra). 

Nitrilases are quite rare in bacterial genomes and less than 20 were reported prior to the application of metagenomics for their detection in environmental DNA [81]. Two studies targeting environmental genomes report the detection of more than 337 novel nitrilases. This has dramatically increased the amount of information about nitrilases, and the newly discovered diversity can be applied for the enantioselective production of hydroxy carboxylic add derivatives [81]. 

Burk and coworkers have used a variety of nitrilases for the DKR of cyanohydrins [48]. Nitrilases catalyze the hydrolytic conversion of cyanohydrins directly to the corresponding carboxylic acids. Racemization was performed under basic conditions (phosphate buffer, pH 8) through reversible loss of HCN. (R)-Mandelic acid was obtained in high yield (86% yield) and high enantioselectivity (98% ee) after 3 hours (Figure 4.23). 

The addition of HCN to aldehydes or ketones produces cyanohydrins (a-hydroxy nitriles). Cyanohydrins racemize under basic conditions through reversible loss of FiCN as illustrated in Figure 6.30. Enantiopure a-hydroxy acids can be obtained via the DKR of racemic cyanohydrins in the presence of an enantioselective nitriletransforming enzyme [86-88]. Many nitrile hydratases are metalloenzymes sensitive to cyanide and a nitrilase is usually used in this biotransformation. The DKR of mandelonitrile has been extended to an industrial process for the manufacture of (R)-mandelic acid [89]. 

Figure 6.30 Nitrilase-catalyzed dynamic kinetic resolution of cyanohydrins.

The biocatalytic differentiation of enantiotopic nitrile groups in prochiral or meso substrates has been studied by several research groups. For instance, the nitrilase-catalyzed desymmetrization of 3-hydroxyglutaronitrile [92,93] followed by an esterification provided ethyl-(Jl)-4-cyano-3-hydroxybutyrate, a useful intermediate in the synthesis of cholesterol-lowering dmg statins (Figure 6.32) [94,95]. The hydrolysis of prochiral a,a-disubstituted malononitriles by a Rhodococcus strain expressing nitrile hydratase/amidase activity resulted in the formation of (R)-a,a-disubstituted malo-namic acids (Figure 6.33) [96]. 

The discovery and exploitation of enzymes in aldoxime-nitrile pathway nitrile hydratase, amidase, nitrilase, aldoxime dehydratase, etc., are shown along with the use of methodologies, such as organic chemistry, microbial screening by enrichment and acclimation culture techniques, enzyme purification, gene cloning, molecular screening by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). 

Stalker DM, KE McBride (1987) Cloning and expresssion in Escherichia coli of a Klebsiella ozaenae plasmid-borne gene encoding a nitrilase specific for the herbicide Bromoxynil. J Bacterial 169 ... 

The nitrilase from a nnmber of strains of Pseudomonas sp. mediated an enantiomerically selective hydrolysis of racemic 0-acetylmandelonitrile to o-acetytmandelic acid R-( )-acetylmandelic acid (Layh et al. 1992). 

There are two pathways for the degradation of nitriles (a) direct formation of carboxylic acids by the activity of a nitrilase, for example, in Bacillus sp. strain OxB-1 and P. syringae B728a (b) hydration to amides followed by hydrolysis, for example, in P. chlororaphis (Oinuma et al. 2003). The monomer acrylonitrile occurs in wastewater from the production of polyacrylonitrile (PAN), and is hydrolyzed by bacteria to acrylate by the combined activity of a nitrilase (hydratase) and an amidase. Acrylate is then degraded by hydration to either lactate or P-hydroxypropionate. The nitrilase or amidase is also capable of hydrolyzing the nitrile group in a number of other nitriles (Robertson et al. 2004) including PAN (Tauber et al. 2000). 

Layh N, A Stolz, S Eorster, E Effenberger, H-J Knackmuss (1992) Enantioselective hydrolysis of O-acetyl-mandelonitrile to O-acetylmandelic acid by bacterial nitrilases. Arch Microbiol 158 405-411. 

Robertson DE et al. (2004) Exploring nitrilase sequence space for enantioselective catalysis. Appl Environ Microbiol 70 2429-2436. 

CrylAc protein Modified EPSPS Acetolactate synthase (csr-1) CrylllA, PVY coat protein CrylllA, PLRV repUcase Nitrilase, CrylAc protein... 

Cotton Calgene/1994 Nitrilase Klebsiella OTjoenae Tolerance to the herbicide bromoxynU... 

Chapters 5-8 are directed to emerging enzymes, which include oxynitrilases, aldolases, ketoreductases, oxidases, nitrile hydratases, and nitrilases, and their recent applications especially in synthesis of chiral drugs and intermediates. 

Hydrolases lipase, protease, esterase nitrilase, nitrile hydratase glycosidase, phosphatase hydrolysis reactions in H20... 

Nitrilases convert nitriles to the corresponding carboxylic acids and NH3 through a cysteine residue in the active site [50]. Because of their high enantio- and regio-selectivity, nitrilases are attractive as green catalysts for the synthesis of a variety of carboxylic acids and derivatives (Figure 1.10) [51,52]. Recently, a number of recombinant nitrilases have been cloned and characterized heterologously for synthetic applications [50,53,54]. 

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