Chhiba-Govindjee, V. P.Brady, D.2025-05-302018-09Chhiba-Govindjee, V. P., Mathiba, K., van der Westhuyzen, C. W., Steenkamp, P., Rashamuse, J. K., Stoychev, S., Bode, M. L., & Brady, D. (2018). Dimethylformamide is a novel nitrilase inducer in Rhodococcus rhodochrous. Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 102(23), 10055–10065. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-9367-90175-7598 (print)1432-0614 (online)10.1007/s00253-018-9367-9https://hdl.handle.net/10539/45027Nitrilases are of commercial interest in the selective synthesis of carboxylic acids from nitriles. Nitrilase induction was achieved here in three bacterial strains through the incorporation of a previously unrecognised and inexpensive nitrilase inducer, dimethylformamide (DMF), during cultivation of two Rhodococcus rhodochrous strains (ATCC BAA-870 and PPPPB BD1780), as well as a closely related organism (Pimelobacter simplex PPPPB BD-1781). Benzonitrile, a known nitrilase inducer, was ineffective in these strains. Biocatalytic product profiling, enzyme inhibition studies and protein sequencing were performed to distinguish the nitrilase activity from that of sequential nitrile hydratase-amidase activity. The expressed enzyme, a 40-kDa protein with high sequence similarity to nitrilase protein Uniprot Q-03217, hydrolyzed 3-cyanopyridine to produce nicotinic acid exclusively in strains BD-1780 and BD-1781. These strains were capable of synthesising both the vitamin nicotinic acid as well as β-amino acids, a compound class of pharmaceutical interest. The induced nitrilase demonstrated high enantioselectivity (>99%) in the hydrolysis of 3-amino-3-phenylpropanenitrile to the corresponding carboxylic acid.en© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018.Rhodococcus rhodochrousPimelobacter simplexNitrilaseInductionExpressionDimethylformamideBiocatalysisArticleSDG-17: Partnerships for the goals