Green chemistry: highly selective biocatalytic hydrolysis of nitrile compounds

Abstract

The application of highly substrate-specific catalysts, such as biocatalysts, can reduce the number of synthetic steps required to generate organic compounds. A wide range of bacteria and yeast cultures were enriched on nitriles as the sole source of nitrogen and evaluated for their substrate profiles. The substrates included aliphatic and aromatic nitriles, as well as structurally related amides. Small-scale liquid reactions were monitored using high pressure liquid chromatography and gas chromatography, combined with mass spectroscopy. The microbial biocatalysts demonstrated a wide variation of activities between genera, within genera, and even within species. The range of substrates transformed and the inter- and intra-species differences in specificity of the individual biocatalysts, suggests that it is possible to provide multiple catalytic or bioremediation agents for the fine chemicals industry