Expanding the repertoire of nitrilases with broad substrate specificity and high substrate tolerance for biocatalytic applications

Abstract Enzymatic conversion of nitriles to carboxylic acids by nitrilases has gained significance in the green synthesis of several pharmaceutical precursors and fine chemicals. Although nitrilases from several sources have been characterized, there exists a scope for identifying broad spectrum nitrilases exhibiting higher substrate tolerance and better thermostability to develop industrially relevant biocatalytic processes. Through genome mining, we have identified nine novel nitrilase sequences from bacteria and evaluated their activity on a broad spectrum of 23 industrially relevant nitrile substrates. Nitrilases from Zobellia galactanivorans, Achromobacter insolitus and Cupriavidus necator were highly active on varying classes of nitriles and applied as whole cell biocatalysts in lab scale processes. Z. galactanivorans nitrilase could convert 4-cyanopyridine to achieve yields of 1.79 M isonicotinic acid within 3 h via fed-batch substrate addition. The nitrilase from A. insolitus could hydrolyze 630 mM iminodiacetonitrile at a fast rate, effecting 86 % conversion to iminodiacetic acid within 1 h. The arylaliphatic nitrilase from C. necator catalysed enantioselective hydrolysis of 740 mM mandelonitrile to (R)-mandelic acid in 4 h. Significantly high product yields suggest that these enzymes would be promising additions to the suite of nitrilases for upscale biocatalytic application.