title: Isolation and Characterization of a Nitrile-Hydrolysing Bacterium Isoptericola variabilis RGT01.
abstract: A nitrile-hydrolysing bacterium, identified as Isoptericola variabilis RGT01, was isolated from industrial effluent through enrichment culture technique using acrylonitrile as the carbon source. Whole cells of this microorganism exhibited a broad range of nitrile-hydrolysing activity as they hydrolysed five aliphatic nitriles (acetonitrile, acrylonitrile, propionitrile, butyronitrile and valeronitrile), two aromatic nitriles (benzonitrile and m-Tolunitrile) and two arylacetonitriles (4-Methoxyphenyl acetonitrile and phenoxyacetonitrile). The nitrile-hydrolysing activity was inducible in nature and acetonitrile proved to be the most efficient inducer. Minimal salt medium supplemented with 50 mM acetonitrile, an incubation temperature of 30 °C with 2 % v/v inoculum, at 200 rpm and incubation of 48 h were found to be the optimal conditions for maximum production (2.64 ± 0.12 U/mg) of nitrile-hydrolysing activity. This activity was stable at 30 °C as it retained around 86 % activity after 4 h at this temperature, but was thermolabile with a half-life of 120 min and 45 min at 40 °C and 50 °C respectively.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Biotechnology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014 India.
authors.forename: Gurdeep
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036 India.
authors.forename: Pankaj
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soni
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Biotechnology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014 India.
authors.forename: Rupinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tewari
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Biotechnology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014 India.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
keywords: Acrylic acid; Biotransformation; Isoptericola variabilis; Nitriles