The aim of this study is to review the current state of and highlight the challenges in the production of microbial nitrilases as catalysts for the mild hydrolysis of industrially important nitriles. Together with aldoxime dehydratase, the nitrile-hydrolyzing enzymes (nitrilase, nitrile hydratase) are key enzymes in the aldoxime-nitrile pathway which is widely distributed in bacteria and fungi. The availability of nitrilases has grown significantly over the past decade due to the use of metagenomic and database-mining approaches. Databases contain plenty of putative enzymes of this type, whose overproduction may improve the spectrum and the industrial utility of nitrilases. By exploiting this resource, the number of experimentally verified nitrilases has recently increased to several hundred. We especially focus on the efficient heterologous expression systems that are applicable for the overproduction of wild-type nitrilases and their artificial variants. Biocatalyst forms with industrial potential are also highlighted. The potential industrial applications of nitrilases are classified according to their target products (α-hydroxy acids, α- and β-amino acids, cyano acids, amides). The emerging uses of nitrilases and their subtypes (cyanide hydratases, cyanide dihydratases) in bioremediation is also summarized. The integration of nitrilases with other enzymes into artificial multienzymatic and chemoenzymatic pathways is considered a promising strategy for future applications.

• Klíčová slova
• Aldoxime–nitrile pathway, Biocatalytic applications, Database mining, Heterologous production, Metagenome mining, Nitrilase,
• MeSH
• aminohydrolasy genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• Bacteria enzymologie   genetika   MeSH
• bakteriální proteiny genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• biodegradace MeSH
• biokatalýza MeSH
• databáze proteinů MeSH
• fungální proteiny genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• houby enzymologie   genetika   MeSH
• metagenomika MeSH
• nitrily metabolismus   MeSH
• proteinové inženýrství metody   MeSH
• rekombinantní proteiny metabolismus   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Názvy látek
• aminohydrolasy MeSH
• bakteriální proteiny MeSH
• fungální proteiny MeSH
• nitrilase MeSH Prohlížeč
• nitrily MeSH
• rekombinantní proteiny MeSH