General reviews about nitrile-active enzymes

A couple of new general reviews of NHase activity within the context of the whole gamut of nitrile-converting enzymes were published in 2010.

*Developments in nitrile and amide biotransformation processes- Velankar, Clarke, du Preez, Cowan and Burton, in Trends in Biotechnology (2010), doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2010.08.004

This review is more from a microbiology perspective (not a chemical structure in sight) but with plenty of chemical detail none the less. It also includes a table I rather appreciate- Table 2 lists published examples of nitrilases, NHases and the related amidases which have been successfully recombinantly expressed in E.coli. Thanks very much for this info... now all we need is a list of the ones that don't successfully express this way!

*Nitrile hydratases (NHases): At the interface of academia and industry-  Prasad and Bhalla in Biotechnology Advances (2010), doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2010.05.020

This review appears to be the modern successor of the Banerjee review on nitrile active enzymes from 2002, but concentrates on NHase. It covers the usual material, and has discussion on mechanism and phylogeny. It also has some molecular modelling of the various structural intricacies.