Different bacterial strains were screened to detect nitrilase and/or nitrile hidratase/amidase activities towards benzonitrile, to be used as biocatalyst to produce enantiomerically pure non-proteinogenic amino acids using amino nitriles as starting material. The best biocatalyst found was Pseudomonas aeruginosa 10145, which showed high enzyme activities. Whole cells were used as catalyst for the transformation of 2-phenyl-2-amino-acetonitrile for the corresponding D-phenylglycine. The percentage conversion was followed by chiral HPLC. After 1 hour reaction 18% of 2-phenyl-2-amino-acetonitrile was converted into D-phenylglycine with an enantiomeric excess of over 95%. When an inducer was added to the media, an increase in nitrile hydrolyzing activities was detected, hence leading to total conversion of (R)-2-phenyl-2-amino-acetonitrile to the corresponding amino acid in 30 min reaction. The isolated yield of the target product was 50% and its characterization was performed by polarimetry, chiral HPLC, IR-FT spectroscopy and GC-MS.
Nitrilase; Amidase; Nitrile hydratase; Amino acids; Kinetic resolution
