Abstract

Nitrile hydratase, catalyzing the hydration reaction of nitrile to amides, is an important enzyme which has been used in the industrial production. Various studies on nitrile hydratase revealed its crystal structure and also proposed some hypothesis of its catalytic mechanism. Recent reports suggested the stereoselectivity of nitrile hydratase, which is regarded as a potential character to enrich its application. However, the isolated organisms are limited as only few genera identified contain this special stereoselective enzyme. This review described the corresponding strain for producing the enzyme, the structure and catalytic mechanism for stereoselectivity of the enzyme.

Key words: Stereoselectivity, nitrile hydratase, substrate specificity, asymmetric synthesis.