An example of gentle hydration using a nitrile hydratase

Using an extreme of pH to carve up a nitrile bond is going to be problematic when there are other, sensitive parts to a molecule. An example would be a nitrile appended to a ferrocene. D'Antona and coworkers are reporting the use of the nitrile hydratase from two Rhodococcus erythropolis strains in whole cell mode to convert nitrile to amide. [DOI:10.1039/C3RA22737E]. The presence of an amidase in the whole cell then coverts a minority through to the related carboxylic acid.