Nitrilases in plants

Piotrowsky, M. 2008. Primary or secondary Versatile nitrilases in plant metabolism. 

Nitrilases in plants are comprised of two subtypes with different biological functions. The first subtype involves nitrilases exhibiting mostly over 70% identity levels to the biochemically characterized nitrilases 1-3 from A. thaliana, which act on substrates such as 3-phenylpropionitrile, allylcyanide, or indole-3-acetonitrile. They seem to be specific for Brassicaceae, which is in accordance with their preference for the nitriles endogeneous in this family or structurally similar to them [22]. They are able to produce plant auxins such as indole-3-acetic acid but the role of this pathway in vivo is not fully understood [21]. 

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