Nitriles microbial degradation

The microbial degradation of nitriles can occur via two different enzymatic pathways [39], different from cyanogenesis [40] (i) nitrilase (EC 3.5.5.1) catalyzes the direct hydrolysis of nitriles to the corresponding carboxylic acids and ammonia (Eq. 1) [41] and (ii) nitriles are catabolized in two stages - they are first converted to the corresponding amides by nitrile hydratase (EC 4.2.1.84) (Eq. 2), and then to the acids and ammonia by amidase (Eq. 3). The microbial degradation of nitriles has also been reviewed elsewhere [42-45]. 

Nitrile hydratase is a key enzyme involved in the microbial degradation of nitriles in the environment, catalyzing the hydration of a nitrile to an amide (see Iron Proteins with... 

In addition to hydrolysis, nerve agents may be transformed in soil by microbial degradation via 0-dealkylation and C-dealkylation with resulting toxic products (Morrill et al. 1985). GA can also be biodegraded via nitrile hydrolysis, resulting in a nontoxic compound N-dealkylation results in a compound that is... 

Microbial degradation of nitrile compounds was performed by different microorganisms, capable of growing on various aliphatic and aromatic nitriles [107-109], They are degraded through two pathways (Figure 7) one is the direct hydrolysis of nitriles to carboxylic acid and ammonia, catalyzed by nitrilases. Nitrilases, that utilize benzonitrile and related aromatic nitriles as substrates, have been purified from Pseudomonas sp. [110.111], Nocardia sp. strains NCIB 11215 [112] and NCIB 11216... 

Y. Asano, T. Yasuda, Y. Tani, H. Yamada, Microbial degradation of nitrile compounds. Part VII. A new enzymic method of acrylamide production, Agric. Biol. Chem. 46 (1982) 1183-1189. 

Zhou, Z., Hashimoto, Y. and Kobayashi, M. (2005) Nitrile degradation by Rhodococcus useful microbial metabolism for industrial productions. Actinomycetologica, 19, 18-26. 

In this paper, enrichment and acclimation techniques are introduced with the isolation of nitrile degraders as typical examples. Furthermore, two recent examples of microbial screening by the use of synthetic substrates for opine dehydrogenase and alkaline D-peptidase are described. 

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