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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Protein engineering of nitrilase for chemoenzymatic production of glycolic acid
Shijun Wu1, Arthur J Fogiel, Kelly L Petrillo
1Central Research and Development Department, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Experimental Station, P.O. Box 80328, Wilmington, Delaware 19880-0328, USA.
Abstract:
A key step in a chemoenzymatic process for the production of high-purity glycolic acid (GLA) is the enzymatic conversion of glycolonitrile (GLN) to ammonium glycolate using a nitrilase derived from Acidovorax facilis 72W. Protein engineering and over-expression of this nitrilase, combined with optimized fermentation of an E. coli transformant were used to increase the enzyme-specific activity up to 15-fold and the biocatalyst-specific activity up to 125-fold. These improvements enabled achievement of the desired volumetric productivity and biocatalyst productivity for the conversion of GLN to ammonium glycolate.
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