Methods of immobilization of NHase, and a new one.

There is a new paper on the immobilization of nitrile hydratase to give greater stability. There are a few previous examples of this topic including:

·         Nitrile hydratase CLEAs: The immobilization and stabilization of an industrially important enzyme from Sander van Pelt, Sandrine Quignard, David Kubac, Dimitry Y. Sorokin, Fred van Rantwijk and Roger A. Sheldon in Green Chemistry in 2008. (DOI: 10.1039/b714258g)

·         Production of Acrylamide using Alginate-Immobilized E. coli Expressing Comamonas testosteroni 5-MGAM-4D Nitrile Hydratase from Lawrence J. Mersinger, Eugenia C. Hann, Frederick B. Cooling, John E. Gavagan, Arie Ben-Bassat, Shijun Wu, Kelly L. Petrillo, Mark S. Payne, and Robert DiCosimo in Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis in 2005. (DOI: 10.1002/adsc.200505039)

·         Biotransformation of nitriles by Rhodococcus equi A4 immobilized in LentiKats from David Kubáč, Alena Čejková, Jan Masák, Vladimír Jirků, Marielle Lemaire, Estelle Gallienne, Jean Bolte, Radek Stloukal, Ludmila Martínková in Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic in 2006. (doi:10.1016/j.molcatb.2006.01.004)

This one is Catalytic Properties of a Nitrile Hydratase Immobilized on Activated Chitosan by Yu. G. Maksimova, T. A. Rogozhnikova, G. V. Ovechkina, A. Yu. Maksimov, and V. A. Demakov in Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology (DOI: 10.1134/S0003683812030076).

They have used a nitrile hydratase isolated from a strain of Rhodococcus ruber gt1 and immobilized it on chitosan activated with 0.1% benzoquinone solution. They show that this immobilized enzyme can be used for 50 consecutive cycles of acrylonitrile transformation with activity holding up well.

They also found that their immobilized nitrile hydratases remain active at pH 3.0–4.0 which usefully extends its effective pH range.