Application of nitrile converting enzymes for the production of useful compounds

The chemical industry has recently begun to look at enzymes as novel catalysts for many organic syntheses. Nitrile-hydrolyzing enzymes such as nitrile hydratase and nitrilase have great potential as catalysts in processing organic chemical because they can convert nitriles to the corresponding higher-value amides or acids. Recently, the use of bacterial nitrile hydratase for industrial production of the important chemical commodity, acrylamide, was pioneered in Japan. We review here the enzymatic production of acrylamide, and how other recent progress in nitrile biotransformations.