Field of the Invention

The invention is directed to methods for the production of ammonium acrylate or salts thereof from acrylonitrile using nitrilase as catalyst.

Description of the Invention

Acrylic acid and its derivatives (esters, salts, and amides) are the primary building blocks or mon- omers in the manufacture of acrylate polymers and co-polymers with numerous applications iden- tified such as surface coatings, adhesives, sealants etc. Acrylic acid is a commodity chemical of considerable value, with an estimated annual production capacity of 4.2 million metric tons. The demand for acrylic acid is continuously increasing due to the increasing use of super absorbents finding their major use in the personal care products. The remainder is used to produce acrylates that are components of acrylic fibres, coatings, paints and inks.

At present, the major source of acrylic acid is produced in the petrochemical industry by oxidation of propylene. Some of the problems encountered during the acrylic acid synthesis from propylene are the damage to the catalysts and the polymerization of the formed products. Although propyl- ene is easily available from fossil fuels, it would be desirable to obtain acrylic acid and its deriva- tives from renewable resources at an equivalent or lower cost.

The use of biological systems to convert nitrile-containing substrates to carboxylic acids is an attractive alternative to chemical methods because of the high yields than can often be obtained, the mild reaction conditions used, and the specialized activities possessed by some enzymes. Especially advantageous over chemical hydrolysis, enzyme-catalysed hydrolysis of a variety of aliphatic or aromatic dinithles can be highly regioselective in that only one of the nitrile groups is hydrolyzed. The advantages using biotechnology approaches are high selectivity and yield, cost reduction in the production process, as processes uses less energy and generates less waste. There are two distinct pathways for the enzymatic hydration of nitriles in plants and microorgan- isms that have been applied in industrial production of acrylic acid. One pathway comprises two enzymatic steps wherein a nitrile hydratase converts a nitrile to an amide which subsequently is hydrolysed by an amidase to yield acrylic acid (US6670158). The other pathway is a single-step reaction catalysed by nithlases (US6162624) which is advantageous compared to the two-step reaction because the latter requiring an extensive amount of equipment for the two stages.

There is a need in the art for providing additional nithlases capable of catalysing this reaction, especially for nithlases catalysing the reaction in a more efficient way than nithlases currently available leading to higher yield and reduced residual acrylonitrile in the final product.

Detailed Description of the Invention

One embodiment of the invention at hand is an isolated nitrilase capable of catalysing the reaction from (meth-) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate in an aqueous medium comprising water, nitrilase and (meth-) acrylonitrile and/or (meth-) ammonium acrylate and optionally a buffer of a pH between including 4 to 9, wherein the concentration of (meth-) ammonium acrylate in the aqueous medium after incubation is at least 10%, at least 15%, at least 20%, at least 25%, at least 30%, at least 35%, preferably at least 40%, at least 45%, more preferably at least 50%, more preferably at least 51 %, more preferably at least 52%, more preferably at least 53%, even more preferably at least 54%, most preferably at least 55% (w/w) and the concentration of (meth- ) acrylonitrile is below 0,1 %, preferably below 0,01 %, more preferably below 0,001 %, most pref- erably below 0,0001 % (w/w) (meth-) acrylonitrile in the aqueous medium at the end of the incu- bation.

Reaction catalyzed by the nitrilases of the invention.

The aqueous medium may be a solution or a suspension or a solution and a suspension, wherein any of the substances comprised in said aqueous medium may be fully or partially dissolved and/ or partially or fully suspended.

In a preferred embodiment, the concentration of acrylonitrile during the incubation and biocon- version should not exceed 8% by wt. for example 6 % by wt. and may for example be in the range from 0.1 % by wt. to 6 % by wt., preferably from 0.2 % by wt. to 5 % by wt., more prefera- bly from 0.3 % by wt. to 4 % by wt., even more preferably from 0.5 % by wt. to 3 % by wt., most preferably from 0.8 % by wt. to 2 % by wt., still most preferably from 1 % by wt. to 1 .5 % by wt., relating to the total of all components of the aqueous mixture.

Alternatively, the concentration of (meth-) acrylonitrile in the aqueous medium may be up to 8% in solution, preferably 6% in solution at the start of the incubation and might be kept at that con- centration during incubation until about 10 min, preferably 15 min, more preferably 20 min, even more preferably 30 min, even more preferably 45 min, most preferably 60 min before the end of the incubation.

In a preferred embodiment, the incubation is performed at 5 °C to 40 °C for 10 minutes to 48 hours, preferably at 5 °C to 35 °C for 1 hour to 24 hours, more preferably at 15 °C to 30 °C for 10 min to 48 hours, most preferably at 18 °C to 28 °C for 3 hours to 15 hours.

In a preferred embodiment, the method is carried out using a semi-batch process.

In a preferred embodiment, the acrylonitrile content is measured using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).

In another embodiment of the invention, the isolated nitrilase is comprising a sequence selected from the group consisting of

The amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6 and 8 or a functional fragment thereof, and a. An amino acid molecule having at least 55% identity to the amino acid mole- cule of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6 or 8 or a functional fragment thereof, and b. An amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, or 7 or a functional fragment thereof, and

c. An amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, or 7 or a functional fragment thereof, and d. An amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to a fragment of at least 250 bases complementary to SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, or 7 or a functional fragment thereof,

wherein the amino acid molecule as defined in b., d. and e. is catalysing the reaction from (meth- ) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate in an aqueous medium and

wherein the concentration of (meth-) ammonium acrylate in the aqueous medium after incubation is at least 10%, at least 15%, at least 20%, at least 25%, at least 30%, at least 35%, preferably at least 40%, at least 45%, more preferably at least 50%, more preferably at least 51 %, more preferably at least 52%, more preferably at least 53%, even more preferably at least 54%, most preferably at least 55% (w/w) and the concentration of (meth-) acrylonitrile is below 0,1 %, prefer- ably below 0,01 %, more preferably below 0,001 %, most preferably below 0,0001 % (w/w) (meth- ) acrylonitrile in the aqueous medium at the end of the incubation.

In one embodiment of the invention, said isolated nitrilase capable of catalysing the reaction from (meth-) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate wherein the concentration of (meth-) ammo- nium acrylate in the aqueous medium after incubation is at least 10%, at least 15%, at least 20%, at least 25%, at least 30%, at least 35%, preferably at least 40%, at least 45%, more preferably at least 50%, more preferably at least 51 %, more preferably at least 52%, more preferably at least 53%, even more preferably at least 54%, most preferably at least 55% (w/w) and the concentra- tion of (meth-) acrylonitrile is below 0,1 %, preferably below 0,01 %, more preferably below 0,001 %, most preferably below 0,0001 % (w/w) (meth-) acrylonitrile in the aqueous medium at the end of the incubation comprises at a position corresponding to positions 56/190 of SEQ ID NO: 2 the amino acids 56W/190L or 56Q/190S or 56D/190S and/or comprises at a position corresponding to position 190/192 of SEQ ID NO: 2 the amino acids 190S/192S or 190S/192G or 190L/192P and/or comprises at a position corresponding to position 190/193 of SEQ ID NO: 2 the amino acids 190L/193D or 190S/193E or 190L/193N and/or comprises at a position corresponding to position 202/249 of SEQ ID NO: 2 the amino acids 202L/249E or 202V/249H or 202I/249F or 202N/249W and/or comprises at a position corresponding to position 286/287 of SEQ ID NO: 2 the amino acids 286M/287A or 286R/287L or 286A/287G or 286S/287L.

A further embodiment of the invention is a process for producing (meth-) ammonium acrylate comprising the steps of providing an aqueous medium comprising water, one or more nitrilases and (meth-) acrylonitrile, and optionally a buffer having a pH of 4 to 9

a) incubating the aqueous medium and

b) optionally isolating the (meth-) ammonium acrylate from the reaction mixture,

wherein the one or more nitrilase is selected from the group consisting of

i. an amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32,

34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and ii. an amino acid molecule having at least 55% identity to the amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 or 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and,

iii. an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule of SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

iv. an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

v. an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to a fragment of at least 250 bases complementary to SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof,

wherein the amino acid molecule as defined in ii., iv. and v. have the activity of converting (meth- ) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate.

In table 1 examples for functional variants of the amino acid molecules of SEQ ID 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 are listed having a certain identity to the respective SEQ ID. Further the SEQ ID of the re- spective nucleic acid are listed encoding the respective functional variant amino acid mole cule.

Table 1

The aqueous medium at the end of the incubation comprises less than 1 % (w/w) acrylamide as by-product, preferably less than 0,5%, more preferably less than 0,1 %. At the start of the process of the invention, the aqueous medium may comprise at least 0,05% (meth-) acrylonitrile, preferably at least 0,1 % (meth-) acrylonitrile, more preferably at least 0,5% (meth-) acrylonitrile, most preferably at least 1 ,0% (meth-) acrylonitrile (w/w). Throughout the in- cubation the concentration of (meth-) acrylonitrile may be kept at a concentration of about 0,5% to 1 ,5%, preferably about 1 ,0% (meth-) acrylonitrile by continuous feeding of (meth-) acrylonitrile.

Alternatively, the concentration of (meth-) acrylonitrile in the aqueous medium may be 5% or 6% at the start of the incubation and might be kept at that concentration or no further (meth-) acrylo- nitrile may be added during incubation. The incubation time of the aqueous medium may be at least 5h, at least 10h or at least 12h. Preferably the incubation time is at least 18h, for example about 24h or about 30h. More prefera- bly the incubation time is about 36h or about 42h. Most preferably, the incubation time is about 48h. Depending on the nitrilase used and the reaction rate of said nitrilase, the incubation time may also exceed 48h.

The aqueous medium may be incubated at at least 15°C, at least 20°C, at least 24°C or at least 28°C. Preferably the aqueous medium is incubated between including 27°C and 33°C, more pref- erably the aqueous medium is incubated between including 28°C and 30°C. Most preferably the aqueous medium is incubated at 28°C. The aqueous medium may also be incubated at 38°C, 39°C, 40°C, 41 °C, 42°C, 43°C, 44°C, 45°C, 46°C, 47°C, 48°C, 49°C or 50°C. In a preferred embodiment, the method is carried out using a semi-batch process.

In a preferred embodiment, the acrylonitrile content is measured using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).

In one embodiment of the invention, aqueous solutions of ammonium (meth-) acrylate may be manufactured at a fixed chemical plant and may be shipped to another location for further pro- cessing. In another preferred embodiment of the present invention the manufacture of ammonium (meth-) acrylate may be performed in a modular, relocatable plant. Further preferred is for exam- pie a relocatable conversion unit, which can be combined with installations and/or units of a fixed chemical plant. Such combination of an existing plant with a modular, relocatable conversion unit offers flexibility in building a production line based on case specific needs. Such production line at a certain plant can be adjusted easily in case the production requirements change. The existing plant for example may be a fixed polymerization plant for homopolymers of (meth-) acrylic acid and/or copolymers of for example (meth-) acrylic acid and acrylamide. So, the combination of a relocatable conversion unit offers the possibility of combining the manufacturing of ammonium (meth-) acrylate with units for further processing the ammonium (meth-) acrylate obtained from a relocatable bioconversion unit.

The nitrilase used in the process of the invention may be isolated from the organism naturally expressing said nitrilase. Alternatively, the nitrilase may be added to the aqueous medium by adding cells comprising said nitrilase or by adding a suspension comprising inactivated, for ex- ample disrupted cells. In another embodiment of the invention, the nitrilase may be produced in recombinant organisms, preferably microorganisms, expressing the nitrilase of the invention from a heterologous construct. The nitrilase so produced may be isolated from the recombinant organ- ism and added to the aqueous medium or the nitrilase may be added by inactivating, for example disrupting the cells and adding the suspension.

The cells or suspension comprising inactivated cells may be at least partially concentrated for example by drying before being added to the aqueous medium used in the methods of the inven- tion or to the composition of the invention.

The nitrilase may be (partly) immobilized for instance entrapped in a gel or it may be used for example as a free cell suspension. For immobilization well known standard methods can be ap- plied like for example entrapment cross linkage such as glutaraldehyde-polyethyleneimine (GA- PEI) crosslinking, cross linking to a matrix and/or carrier binding etc., including variations and/or combinations of the aforementioned methods. Alternatively, the nitrilase enzyme may be ex- tracted and for instance may be used directly in the process for preparing the amide. When using inactivated or partly inactivated cells, such cells may be inactivated by thermal or chemical treat- ment.

A further embodiment of the invention is and isolated nitrilase comprising a sequence selected from the group consisting of an amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule having at least 55% identity to the amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56,

60, 62, 64, 66 or 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and,

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule of SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59,

61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to a fragment of at least 250 bases complementary to SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof,

wherein the amino acid molecule as defined in b., d. and e. is catalysing the reaction from (meth- ) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate in an aqueous medium.

A further embodiment of the invention is a recombinant construct comprising a nitrilase wherein the nitrilase is selected from the group consisting of

an amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule having at least 55% identity to the amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66 or 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and,

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule of SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to a fragment of at least 250 bases complementary to SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof,

wherein the amino acid molecule as defined in ii., iv. and v. is catalysing the reaction from (meth- ) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate in an aqueous medium.

Said recombinant construct may be integrated into the genome of an organism for producing and isolating the respective nitrilase or the nitrilase may be expressed from a vector such as a plasmid or viral vector that is introduced into an organism for producing and isolating said nitrilase.

The nitrilase in the recombinant construct may be functionally linked to a heterologous promoter, a heterologous terminator or any other heterologous genetic element.

A further embodiment of the invention is a recombinant vector, such a s an expression vector or a viral vector comprising said recombinant construct. A recombinant microorganism comprising said recombinant construct or said recombinant vector is also an embodiment of the invention.

In some embodiments, the recombinant microorganism is a prokaryotic cell. Suitable prokaryotic cells include Gram-positive, Gram negative and Gram-variable bacterial cells, preferably Gram- negative.

Thus, microorganisms that can be used in the present invention include, but are not limited to, Gluconobacter oxydans, Gluconobacter asaii, Achromobacter delmarvae, Achromobacter vis- cosus, Achromobacter lacticum, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Agrobacterium radiobacter, Alcali- genes faecalis, Arthrobacter citreus, Arthrobacter tumescens, Arthrobacter paraffineus, Arthro- bacter hydrocarboglutamicus, Arthrobacter oxydans, Aureobacterium saperdae, Azotobacter in- dicus, Brevibacterium ammoniagenes, Brevibacterium divaricatum, Brevibacterium lactofermen- tum, Brevibacterium flavum, Brevibacterium globosum, Brevibacterium fuscum, Brevibacterium ketoglutamicum, Brevibacterium helcolum, Brevibacterium pusillum, Brevibacterium testaceum, Brevibacterium roseum, Brevibacterium immariophilium, Brevibacterium linens, Brevibacterium protopharmiae, Corynebacterium acetophilum, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Corynebacterium callunae, Corynebacterium acetoacidophilum, Corynebacterium acetoglutamicum, Enterobacter aerogenes, Erwinia amylovora, Erwinia carotovora, Erwinia herbicola, Erwinia chrysanthemi, Flavobacterium peregrinum, Flavobacterium fucatum, Flavobacterium aurantinum, Flavobacte- rium rhenanum, Flavobacterium sewanense, Flavobacterium breve, Flavobacterium menin- gosepticum, Micrococcus sp. CCM825, Morganella morganii, Nocardia opaca, Nocardia rugosa, Planococcus eucinatus, Proteus rettgeri, Propionibacterium shermanii, Pseudomonas synxan- tha, Pseudomonas azotoformans, Pseudomonas jluorescens, Pseudomonas ovalis, Pseudomo- nas stutzeri, Pseudomonas acidovolans, Pseudomonas mucidolens, Pseudomonas testos- teroni, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Rhodococcus erythropolis, Rhodococcus rhodochrous, Rho- dococcus sp. ATCC 15592, Rhodococcus sp. ATCC 19070, Sporosarcina ureae, Staphylococ- cus aureus, Vibrio metschnikovii, Vibrio tyrogenes, Actinomadura madurae, Actinomyces viola- ceochromogenes, Kitasatosporia parulosa, Streptomyces avermitilis, Streptomyces coelicolor, Streptomyces flavelus, Streptomyces griseolus, Streptomyces lividans, Streptomyces olivaceus, Streptomyces tanashiensis, Streptomyces virginiae, Streptomyces antibioticus, Streptomyces cacaoi, Streptomyces lavendulae, Streptomyces viridochromogenes, Aeromonas salmonicida, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus thiaminolyticus, Escherichia freundii, Microbacte- rium ammoniaphilum, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella schottmulleri, Xanthomonas citri, Synechocystis sp., Synechococcus elongatus, Thermosynechococcus elon- gatus, Microcystis aeruginosa, Nostoc sp., N. commune, N.sphaericum, Nostoc punctiforme , Spirulina platensis, Lyngbya majuscula, L. lagerheimii, Phormidium tenue, Anabaena sp., Lep- tolyngbya sp and so forth.

In some embodiments, the microorganism is a eukaryotic cell. Suitable eukaryotic cells include yeast cells, as for example Saccharomyces spec, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Han- senula spec, such as Hansenula polymorpha, Schizosaccharomyces spec, such as Schizosac- charomyces pombe, Kluyveromyces spec, such as Kluyveromyces lactis and Kluyveromyces marxianus, Yarrowia spec, such as Yarrowia lipolytica, Pichia spec, such as Pichia methanolica, Pichia stipites and Pichia pastoris, Zygosaccharomyces spec, such as Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Zygosaccharomyces bailii, Candida spec, such as Candida boidinii, Candida utilis, Candida freyschussii, Candida glabrata and Candida sonorensis, Schwanniomyces spec, such as Schwanniomyces occidentalis, Arxula spec, such as Arxula adeninivorans, Ogataea spec such as Ogataea minuta, Klebsiella spec, such as Klebsiella pneumonia.

A microorganism of the genus Cupriavidus basilensis, Flavihumibacter solisilvae, Acidovorax fa- cilis 72W, Pseudomonas sp. RIT357, Nocardia brasiliensis NBRC 14402, Pseudomonas flu- orscens, Agrobacterium rubi, Candidatus Dadabacteria bacterium CSP1 -2, Tepidicaulis marinus, Synechococcus sp. CC9605, Aquimarina atlantica, Arthrobacter sp., Sphingomonas wittichii RW1 , Pseudomonas mandelii JR-1 , Salinisphaera shabanensis E1 L3A, Smithella sp. SDB, Brad- yrhizobium diazoefficiens, Actinobacteria bacterium RBG_13_55_18, Rhizobium sp. YK2 or Bac- terium YEK0313 expressing any of the nitrilases of the invention is another embodiment of the invention.

A further embodiment of the invention is a method for producing a nitrilase, comprising the steps of

a) providing a recombinant microorganism expressing at least one of the nitrilases of the invention or a microorganism naturally expressing a nitrilase of the invention, and

b) cultivating said microorganism under conditions allowing for the expression of said ni- trilase gene, and

c) optionally isolating the nitrilase of the invention from said microorganism.

Another embodiment of the invention is a composition comprising water, a nitrilase, (meth-) acry- lonitrile and/or (meth-) ammonium acrylate wherein the nitrilase is selected from the group con- sisting of

an amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule having at least 55% identity to the amino acid molecule of SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56,

60, 62, 64, 66 or 68, and,

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule of SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO: 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59,

61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof, and

an amino acid molecule encoded by a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to a fragment of at least 250 bases complementary to SEQ ID NO 1 , 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1 , 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 , 25, 27, 29, 31 , 33, 37, 39, 41 , 45, 47, 51 , 53, 55, 59, 61 , 63, 65 or 67 or a functional fragment thereof,

wherein the amino acid molecule as defined in ii., iv. and v. is catalysing the reaction from (meth- ) acrylonitrile to (meth-) ammonium acrylate in an aqueous medium. Amino acid molecules and nucleic acid molecules having a certain identity to any of the se- quences of SEQ ID NO 1 to 68 include nucleic acid molecules and amino acid molecules having

55%, 56%, 57%, 58%, 59%, 60%, 61 %, 62%, 63%, 64%, 65%, 66%, 67%, 68%, 69%, 70%, 71 %,

72%, 73%, 74%, 75%, 76%, 77%, 78%, 79%, 80%, 81 %, 82%, 83%, 84%, 85%, 86%, 87%, 88%,

89%, 90%, 91 %, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, or more sequence identity to any of SEQ ID NO:1 to 68.

Preferably, the nitrilase amino acid sequences having a certain identity to the nitrilases of SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 comprise some, preferably predominantly, conservative amino acid substitutions. Conservative substitutions are those where one amino acid is exchanged with a similar amino acid. For determination of %-similarity the following applies, which is also in accordance with the BLOSUM62 matrix, which is one of the most used amino acids similarity matrix for database searching and sequence alignments:

Amino acid A is similar to amino acids S

Amino acid D is similar to amino acids E; N

Amino acid E is similar to amino acids D; K; Q

Amino acid F is similar to amino acids W; Y

Amino acid H is similar to amino acids N; Y

Amino acid I is similar to amino acids L; M; V

Amino acid K is similar to amino acids E; Q; R

Amino acid L is similar to amino acids I; M; V

Amino acid M is similar to amino acids I; L; V

Amino acid N is similar to amino acids D; H; S

Amino acid Q is similar to amino acids E; K; R

Amino acid R is similar to amino acids K; Q

Amino acid S is similar to amino acids A; N; T

Amino acid T is similar to amino acids S

Amino acid V is similar to amino acids I; L; M

Amino acid W is similar to amino acids F; Y

Amino acid Y is similar to amino acids F; H; W

Conservative amino acid substitutions may occur over the full length of the sequence of a poly- peptide sequence of a functional protein such as an enzyme. In one embodiment, such muta- tions are not pertaining the functional domains of an enzyme. In one embodiment, conservative mutations are not pertaining the catalytic centers of an enzyme.

A functional fragment of the amino acid molecules selected from SEQ ID NO: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 comprises at least 100 amino acids, preferably at least 150 amino acids, more preferably at least 200 amino acids, more preferably at least 250 amino acids, most preferably at least 300 amino acids.

DEFINITIONS

It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular methodology or protocols. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing par- ticular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention which will be limited only by the appended claims. It must be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "and," and "the" include plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a vector" is a reference to one or more vec- tors and includes equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art, and so forth. The term "about" is used herein to mean approximately, roughly, around, or in the region of. When the term "about" is used in conjunction with a numerical range, it modifies that range by extending the boundaries above and below the numerical values set forth. In general, the term "about" is used herein to modify a numerical value above and below the stated value by a variance of 20 percent, preferably 10 percent up or down (higher or lower). As used herein, the word "or" means any one member of a particular list and also includes any combination of members of that list. The words "comprise," "comprising," "include," "including," and "includes" when used in this specification and in the following claims are intended to specify the presence of one or more stated features, inte- gers, components, or steps, but they do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, components, steps, or groups thereof. For clarity, certain terms used in the specification are defined and used as follows:

Coding region: As used herein the term "coding region" when used in reference to a structural gene refers to the nucleotide sequences which encode the amino acids found in the nascent polypeptide as a result of translation of a mRNA molecule. The coding region is bounded, in eukaryotes, on the 5'-side by the nucleotide triplet "ATG" which encodes the initiator methionine, prokaryotes also use the triplets“GTG” and“TTG” as start codon. On the 3'-side it is bounded by one of the three triplets which specify stop codons (i.e., TAA, TAG, TGA). In addition a gene may include sequences located on both the 5'- and 3'-end of the sequences which are present on the RNA transcript. These sequences are referred to as "flanking" sequences or regions (these flank- ing sequences are located 5' or 3' to the non-translated sequences present on the mRNA tran- script). The 5'-flanking region may contain regulatory sequences such as promoters and enhanc- ers which control or influence the transcription of the gene. The 3'-flanking region may contain sequences which direct the termination of transcription, post-transcriptional cleavage and poly- adenylation.

Complementary: "Complementary" or "complementarity" refers to two nucleotide sequences which comprise antiparallel nucleotide sequences capable of pairing with one another (by the base-pairing rules) upon formation of hydrogen bonds between the complementary base residues in the antiparallel nucleotide sequences. For example, the sequence 5'-AGT-3' is complementary to the sequence 5'-ACT-3'. Complementarity can be "partial" or "total." "Partial" complementarity is where one or more nucleic acid bases are not matched according to the base pairing rules. "Total" or "complete" complementarity between nucleic acid molecules is where each and every nucleic acid base is matched with another base under the base pairing rules. The degree of com- plementarity between nucleic acid molecule strands has significant effects on the efficiency and strength of hybridization between nucleic acid molecule strands. A "complement" of a nucleic acid sequence as used herein refers to a nucleotide sequence whose nucleic acid molecules show total complementarity to the nucleic acid molecules of the nucleic acid sequence.

Endogenous: An "endogenous" nucleotide sequence refers to a nucleotide sequence, which is present in the genome of a wild type microorganism.

Enhanced expression:“enhance” or“increase” the expression of a nucleic acid molecule in a microorganism are used equivalently herein and mean that the level of expression of a nucleic acid molecule in a microorganism is higher compared to a reference microorganism, for example a wild type. The terms "enhanced” or“increased" as used herein mean herein higher, preferably significantly higher expression of the nucleic acid molecule to be expressed. As used herein, an “enhancement” or“increase” of the level of an agent such as a protein, mRNA or RNA means that the level is increased relative to a substantially identical microorganism grown under substantially identical conditions. As used herein,“enhancement” or“increase” of the level of an agent, such as for example a preRNA, mRNA, rRNA, tRNA, expressed by the target gene and/or of the protein product encoded by it, means that the level is increased 50% or more, for example 100% or more, preferably 200% or more, more preferably 5 fold or more, even more preferably 10 fold or more, most preferably 20 fold or more for example 50 fold relative to a suitable reference microorganism. The enhancement or increase can be determined by methods with which the skilled worker is familiar. Thus, the enhancement or increase of the nucleic acid or protein quantity can be deter- mined for example by an immunological detection of the protein. Moreover, techniques such as protein assay, fluorescence, Northern hybridization, densitometric measurement of nucleic acid concentration in a gel, nuclease protection assay, reverse transcription (quantitative RT-PCR), ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), Western blotting, radioimmunoassay (RIA) or other immunoassays and fluorescence-activated cell analysis (FACS) can be employed to meas- ure a specific protein or RNA in a microorganism. Depending on the type of the induced protein product, its activity or the effect on the phenotype of the microorganism may also be determined. Methods for determining the protein quantity are known to the skilled worker. Examples, which may be mentioned, are: the micro-Biuret method (Goa J (1953) Scand J Clin Lab Invest 5:218- 222), the Folin-Ciocalteau method (Lowry OH et al. (1951 ) J Biol Chem 193:265-275) or measur- ing the absorption of CBB G-250 (Bradford MM (1976) Analyt Biochem 72:248-254).

Expression: "Expression" refers to the biosynthesis of a gene product, preferably to the transcrip- tion and/or translation of a nucleotide sequence, for example an endogenous gene or a heterolo- gous gene, in a cell. For example, in the case of a structural gene, expression involves transcrip- tion of the structural gene into mRNA and - optionally - the subsequent translation of mRNA into one or more polypeptides. In other cases, expression may refer only to the transcription of the DNA harboring an RNA molecule.

Foreign: The term "foreign" refers to any nucleic acid molecule (e.g., gene sequence) which is introduced into a cell by experimental manipulations and may include sequences found in that cell as long as the introduced sequence contains some modification (e.g., a point mutation, the presence of a selectable marker gene, etc.) and is therefore different relative to the naturally- occurring sequence.

Functional fragment: The term“functional fragment” refers to any nucleic acid or amino acid se- quence which comprises merely a part of the full length nucleic acid or full length amino acid sequence, respectively, but still has the same or similar activity and/or function. In one embodi- ment, the fragment comprises at least 70%, at least 80 %, at least 85%, at least 90 %, at least 95%, at least 96%, at least 97%, at least 98 %, at least 99% of the original sequence. In one embodiment, the functional fragment comprises contiguous nucleic acids or amino acids corn- pared to the original nucleic acid or original amino acid sequence, respectively.

Functional linkage: The term "functional linkage" or "functionally linked" is equivalent to the term “operable linkage” or“operably linked” and is to be understood as meaning, for example, the sequential arrangement of a regulatory element (e.g. a promoter) with a nucleic acid sequence to be expressed and, if appropriate, further regulatory elements (such as e.g., a terminator) in such a way that each of the regulatory elements can fulfill its intended function to allow, modify, facilitate or otherwise influence expression of said nucleic acid sequence. As a synonym the wording“op- erable linkage” or“operably linked” may be used. The expression may result depending on the arrangement of the nucleic acid sequences in relation to sense or antisense RNA. To this end, direct linkage in the chemical sense is not necessarily required. Genetic control sequences such as, for example, enhancer sequences, can also exert their function on the target sequence from positions which are further away, or indeed from other DNA molecules. Preferred arrangements are those in which the nucleic acid sequence to be expressed recombinantly is positioned behind the sequence acting as promoter, so that the two sequences are linked covalently to each other. In a preferred embodiment, the nucleic acid sequence to be transcribed is located behind the promoter in such a way that the transcription start is identical with the desired beginning of the chimeric RNA of the invention. Functional linkage, and an expression construct, can be generated by means of customary recombination and cloning techniques as described (e.g., Sambrook J, Fritsch EF and Maniatis T (1989); Silhavy et al. (1984) Experiments with Gene Fusions, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor (NY); Ausubel et al. (1987) Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Publishing Assoc and Wiley Interscience; Gelvin et al. (Eds) (1990) Plant Molecular Biology Manual; Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht, The Netherlands). How- ever, further sequences, which, for example, act as a linker with specific cleavage sites for re- striction enzymes, or as a signal peptide, may also be positioned between the two sequences. The insertion of sequences may also lead to the expression of fusion proteins. Preferably, the expression construct, consisting of a linkage of a regulatory region for example a promoter and nucleic acid sequence to be expressed, can exist in a vector-integrated form or can be inserted into the genome, for example by transformation.

Gene: The term "gene" refers to a region operably linked to appropriate regulatory sequences capable of regulating the expression of the gene product (e.g., a polypeptide or a functional RNA) in some manner. A gene includes untranslated regulatory regions of DNA (e.g., promoters, en- hancers, repressors, etc.) preceding (up-stream) and following (downstream) the coding region (open reading frame, ORF). The term "structural gene" as used herein is intended to mean a DNA sequence that is transcribed into mRNA which is then translated into a sequence of amino acids characteristic of a specific polypeptide.

Genome and genomic DNA: The terms“genome” or“genomic DNA” is referring to the heritable genetic information of a host organism. Said genomic DNA comprises the DNA of the nucleoid but also the DNA of the self-replicating plasmid.

Heterologous: The term "heterologous” with respect to a nucleic acid molecule or DNA refers to a nucleic acid molecule which is operably linked to, or is manipulated to become operably linked to, a second nucleic acid molecule to which it is not operably linked in nature, or to which it is operably linked at a different location in nature. A heterologous expression construct comprising a nucleic acid molecule and one or more regulatory nucleic acid molecule (such as a promoter or a transcription termination signal) linked thereto for example is a constructs originating by exper- imental manipulations in which either a) said nucleic acid molecule, or b) said regulatory nucleic acid molecule or c) both (i.e. (a) and (b)) is not located in its natural (native) genetic environment or has been modified by experimental manipulations, an example of a modification being a sub- stitution, addition, deletion, inversion or insertion of one or more nucleotide residues. Natural ge- netic environment refers to the natural genomic locus in the organism of origin, or to the presence in a genomic library. In the case of a genomic library, the natural genetic environment of the sequence of the nucleic acid molecule is preferably retained, at least in part. The environment flanks the nucleic acid sequence at least at one side and has a sequence of at least 50 bp, pref- erably at least 500 bp, especially preferably at least 1 ,000 bp, very especially preferably at least 5,000 bp, in length. A naturally occurring expression construct - for example the naturally occur- ring combination of a promoter with the corresponding gene - becomes a transgenic expression construct when it is modified by non-natural, synthetic“artificial” methods such as, for example, mutagenization. Such methods have been described (US 5,565,350; WO 00/15815). For exam- pie a protein encoding nucleic acid molecule operably linked to a promoter, which is not the native promoter of this molecule, is considered to be heterologous with respect to the promoter. Prefer- ably, heterologous DNA is not endogenous to or not naturally associated with the cell into which it is introduced, but has been obtained from another cell or has been synthesized. Heterologous DNA also includes an endogenous DNA sequence, which contains some modification, non-natu- rally occurring, multiple copies of an endogenous DNA sequence, or a DNA sequence which is not naturally associated with another DNA sequence physically linked thereto. Generally, alt- hough not necessarily, heterologous DNA encodes RNA or proteins that are not normally pro- duced by the cell into which it is expressed.

Hybridization: The term "hybridisation" as defined herein is a process wherein substantially com- plementary nucleotide sequences anneal to each other. The hybridisation process can occur en- tirely in solution, i.e. both complementary nucleic acids are in solution. The hybridisation process can also occur with one of the complementary nucleic acids immobilised to a matrix such as magnetic beads, Sepharose beads or any other resin. The hybridisation process can furthermore occur with one of the complementary nucleic acids immobilised to a solid support such as a nitro- cellulose or nylon membrane or immobilised by e.g. photolithography to, for example, a siliceous glass support (the latter known as nucleic acid arrays or microarrays or as nucleic acid chips). In order to allow hybridisation to occur, the nucleic acid molecules are generally thermally or chem- ically denatured to melt a double strand into two single strands and/or to remove hairpins or other secondary structures from single stranded nucleic acids.

The term“stringency” refers to the conditions under which a hybridisation takes place. The strin gency of hybridisation is influenced by conditions such as temperature, salt concentration, ionic strength and hybridisation buffer composition. Generally, low stringency conditions are selected to be about 30°C lower than the thermal melting point (Tm) for the specific sequence at a defined ionic strength and pH. Medium stringency conditions are when the temperature is 20°C below Tm, and high stringency conditions are when the temperature is 10°C below Tm. High stringency hybridisation conditions are typically used for isolating hybridising sequences that have high se- quence similarity to the target nucleic acid sequence. However, nucleic acids may deviate in se- quence and still encode a substantially identical polypeptide, due to the degeneracy of the genetic code. Therefore, medium stringency hybridisation conditions may sometimes be needed to iden- tify such nucleic acid molecules.

The“Tm” is the temperature under defined ionic strength and pH, at which 50% of the target sequence hybridises to a perfectly matched probe. The Tm is dependent upon the solution con- ditions and the base composition and length of the probe. For example, longer sequences hybrid ise specifically at higher temperatures. The maximum rate of hybridisation is obtained from about 16°C up to 32°C below Tm. The presence of monovalent cations in the hybridisation solution reduce the electrostatic repulsion between the two nucleic acid strands thereby promoting hybrid formation; this effect is visible for sodium concentrations of up to 0.4M (for higher concentrations, this effect may be ignored). Formamide reduces the melting temperature of DNA-DNA and DNA- RNA duplexes with 0.6 to 0.7°C for each percent formamide, and addition of 50% formamide allows hybridisation to be performed at 30 to 45°C, though the rate of hybridisation will be lowered. Base pair mismatches reduce the hybridisation rate and the thermal stability of the duplexes. On average and for large probes, the Tm decreases about 1 °C per % base mismatch. The Tm may be calculated using the following equations, depending on the types of hybrids:

DNA-DNA hybrids (Meinkoth and Wahl, Anal. Biochem., 138: 267-284, 1984):

Tm= 81 .5°C + 16.6xlog[Na+]a + 0.41x%[G/Cb] - 500x[Lc]-1 - 0.61x% formamide

DNA-RNA or RNA-RNA hybrids:

Tm= 79.8 + 18.5 (log10[Na+]a) + 0.58 (%G/Cb) + 1 1.8 (%G/Cb)2 - 820/Lc

oligo-DNA or oligo-RNAd hybrids:

For <20 nucleotides: Tm= 2 (In)

For 20-35 nucleotides: Tm= 22 + 1.46 (In )

a or for other monovalent cation, but only accurate in the 0.01-0.4 M range

b only accurate for %GC in the 30% to 75% range

c L = length of duplex in base pairs.

d Oligo, oligonucleotide; In, effective length of primer = 2*(no. of G/C)+(no. of A T).

Non-specific binding may be controlled using any one of a number of known techniques such as, for example, blocking the membrane with protein containing solutions, additions of heterologous RNA, DNA, and SDS to the hybridisation buffer, and treatment with Rnase. For non-related probes, a series of hybridizations may be performed by varying one of (i) progressively lowering the annealing temperature (for example from 68°C to 42°C) or (ii) progressively lowering the formamide concentration (for example from 50% to 0%). The skilled artisan is aware of various parameters which may be altered during hybridisation and which will either maintain or change the stringency conditions.

Besides the hybridisation conditions, specificity of hybridisation typically also depends on the function of post-hybridisation washes. To remove background resulting from non-specific hybrid- isation, samples are washed with dilute salt solutions. Critical factors of such washes include the ionic strength and temperature of the final wash solution: the lower the salt concentration and the higher the wash temperature, the higher the stringency of the wash. Wash conditions are typically performed at or below hybridisation stringency. A positive hybridisation gives a signal that is at least twice of that of the background. Generally, suitable stringent conditions for nucleic acid hy- bridisation assays or gene amplification detection procedures are as set forth above. More or less stringent conditions may also be selected. The skilled artisan is aware of various parameters which may be altered during washing and which will either maintain or change the stringency conditions.

For example, typical high stringency hybridisation conditions for DNA hybrids longer than 50 nu- cleotides encompass hybridisation at 65°C in 1 x SSC or at 42°C in 1 x SSC and 50% formamide, followed by washing at 65°C in 0.3x SSC. Examples of medium stringency hybridisation condi- tions for DNA hybrids longer than 50 nucleotides encompass hybridisation at 50°C in 4x SSC or at 40°C in 6x SSC and 50% formamide, followed by washing at 50°C in 2x SSC. The length of the hybrid is the anticipated length for the hybridising nucleic acid. When nucleic acids of known sequence are hybridised, the hybrid length may be determined by aligning the sequences and identifying the conserved regions described herein. 1 *SSC is 0.15M NaCI and 15mM sodium citrate; the hybridisation solution and wash solutions may additionally include 5x Denhardt's rea- gent, 0.5-1 .0% SDS, 100 pg/ml denatured, fragmented salmon sperm DNA, 0.5% sodium pyro- phosphate. Another example of high stringency conditions is hybridisation at 65°C in 0.1 x SSC comprising 0.1 SDS and optionally 5x Denhardt's reagent, 100 pg/ml denatured, fragmented salmon sperm DNA, 0.5% sodium pyrophosphate, followed by the washing at 65°C in 0.3x SSC. For the purposes of defining the level of stringency, reference can be made to Sambrook et al. (2001 ) Molecular Cloning: a laboratory manual, 3rd Edition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, CSH, New York or to Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley & Sons, N.Y. (1989 and yearly updates).

“Identity”:“Identity” when used in respect to the comparison of two or more nucleic acid or amino acid molecules means that the sequences of said molecules share a certain degree of sequence similarity, the sequences being partially identical.

Enzyme variants may be defined by their sequence identity when compared to a parent enzyme. Sequence identity usually is provided as“% sequence identity” or“% identity”. To determine the percent-identity between two amino acid sequences in a first step a pairwise sequence alignment is generated between those two sequences, wherein the two sequences are aligned over their complete length (i.e., a pairwise global alignment). The alignment is generated with a program implementing the Needleman and Wunsch algorithm (J. Mol. Biol. (1979) 48, p. 443-453), prefer- ably by using the program“NEEDLE” (The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite (EMBOSS)) with the programs default parameters (gapopen=10.0, gapextend=0.5 and ma- trix=EBLOSUM62). The preferred alignment for the purpose of this invention is that alignment, from which the highest sequence identity can be determined.

The following example is meant to illustrate two nucleotide sequences, but the same calculations apply to protein sequences:

Seq A: AAGATACTG length: 9 bases

Seq B: GATCTGA length: 7 bases

Hence, the shorter sequence is sequence B.

Producing a pairwise global alignment which is showing both sequences over their complete lengths results in

Seq A: AAGATACTG-

III III

Seq B: -GAT-CTGA

The Ί” symbol in the alignment indicates identical residues (which means bases for DNA or amino acids for proteins). The number of identical residues is 6.

The symbol in the alignment indicates gaps. The number of gaps introduced by alignment within the Seq B is 1. The number of gaps introduced by alignment at borders of Seq B is 2, and at borders of Seq A is 1 .

The alignment length showing the aligned sequences over their complete length is 10.

Producing a pairwise alignment which is showing the shorter sequence over its complete length according to the invention consequently results in:

Seq A: GATACTG-

III III

Seq B: GAT-CTGA

Producing a pairwise alignment which is showing sequence A over its complete length according to the invention consequently results in:

Seq A: AAGATACTG

lll lll

Seq B: -GAT-CTG Producing a pairwise alignment which is showing sequence B over its complete length according to the invention consequently results in:

Seq A: GATACTG-

III III

Seq B: GAT-CTGA

The alignment length showing the shorter sequence over its complete length is 8 (one gap is present which is factored in the alignment length of the shorter sequence).

Accordingly, the alignment length showing Seq A over its complete length would be 9 (meaning Seq A is the sequence of the invention).

Accordingly, the alignment length showing Seq B over its complete length would be 8 (meaning Seq B is the sequence of the invention).

After aligning two sequences, in a second step, an identity value is determined from the alignment produced. For purposes of this description, percent identity is calculated by %-identity = (identical residues / length of the alignment region which is showing the respective sequence of this inven- tion over its complete length) ^* 100. Thus, sequence identity in relation to comparison of two amino acid sequences according to this embodiment is calculated by dividing the number of identical residues by the length of the alignment region which is showing the respective sequence of this invention over its complete length. This value is multiplied with 100 to give“%-identity”. According to the example provided above, %-identity is: for Seq A being the sequence of the invention (6 / 9) ^* 100 = 66.7 %; for Seq B being the sequence of the invention (6 / 8) ^* 100 =75%.

Isolated: The term "isolated" as used herein means that a material has been removed by the hand of man and exists apart from its original, native environment and is therefore not a product of nature. An isolated material or molecule (such as a DNA molecule or enzyme) may exist in a purified form or may exist in a non-native environment such as, for example, in a transgenic host cell. For example, a naturally occurring nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide present in a living cell is not isolated, but the same nucleic acid molecule or polypeptide, separated from some or all of the coexisting materials in the natural system, is isolated. Such nucleic acid molecules can be part of a vector and/or such nucleic acid molecules or polypeptides could be part of a compo- sition, and would be isolated in that such a vector or composition is not part of its original envi- ronment. Preferably, the term "isolated" when used in relation to a nucleic acid molecule, as in "an isolated nucleic acid sequence" refers to a nucleic acid sequence that is identified and sepa- rated from at least one contaminant nucleic acid molecule with which it is ordinarily associated in its natural source. Isolated nucleic acid molecule is nucleic acid molecule present in a form or setting that is different from that in which it is found in nature. In contrast, non-isolated nucleic acid molecules are nucleic acid molecules such as DNA and RNA, which are found in the state they exist in nature. For example, a given DNA sequence (e.g., a gene) is found on the host cell chromosome in proximity to neighboring genes; RNA sequences, such as a specific mRNA se- quence encoding a specific protein, are found in the cell as a mixture with numerous other mRNAs, which encode a multitude of proteins. However, an isolated nucleic acid sequence corn- prising for example SEQ ID NO: 1 includes, by way of example, such nucleic acid sequences in cells which ordinarily contain SEQ ID NO: 1 where the nucleic acid sequence is in a genomic or plasmid location different from that of natural cells, or is otherwise flanked by a different nucleic acid sequence than that found in nature. The isolated nucleic acid sequence may be present in single- or double-stranded form. When an isolated nucleic acid sequence is to be utilized to ex- press a protein, the nucleic acid sequence will contain at a minimum at least a portion of the sense or coding strand (i.e., the nucleic acid sequence may be single-stranded). Alternatively, it may contain both the sense and anti-sense strands (i.e., the nucleic acid sequence may be double- stranded).

Nitrilase: The term“nitrilase” as used herein refers to an enzyme catalyzing the reaction from meth-acrylonitrile to meth-ammonium acrylate and / or the reaction from acrylonitrile to ammo- nium acrylate. It also encompasses enzymes that are catalyzing additional reactions despite those mentioned before.

Non-coding: The term "non-coding" refers to sequences of nucleic acid molecules that do not encode part or all of an expressed protein. Non-coding sequences include but are not limited enhancers, promoter regions, 3' untranslated regions, and 5' untranslated regions.

Nucleic acids and nucleotides: The terms "nucleic acids" and "Nucleotides" refer to naturally oc- curring or synthetic or artificial nucleic acid or nucleotides. The terms“nucleic acids” and "nucle- otides” comprise deoxyribonucleotides or ribonucleotides or any nucleotide analogue and poly- mers or hybrids thereof in either single- or double-stranded, sense or antisense form. Unless otherwise indicated, a particular nucleic acid sequence also implicitly encompasses conserva- tively modified variants thereof (e.g., degenerate codon substitutions) and complementary se- quences, as well as the sequence explicitly indicated. The term "nucleic acid" is used inter- changeably herein with "gene", "cDNA, "mRNA", "oligonucleotide," and "nucleic acid molecule". Nucleotide analogues include nucleotides having modifications in the chemical structure of the base, sugar and/or phosphate, including, but not limited to, 5-position pyrimidine modifications, 8-position purine modifications, modifications at cytosine exocyclic amines, substitution of 5- bromo-uracil, and the like; and 2'-position sugar modifications, including but not limited to, sugar- modified ribonucleotides in which the 2'-OH is replaced by a group selected from H, OR, R, halo, SH, SR, NH2, NHR, NR2, or CN. Short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) also can comprise non-natural elements such as non-natural bases, e.g., ionosin and xanthine, non-natural sugars, e.g., 2'- methoxy ribose, or non-natural phosphodiester linkages, e.g., methylphosphonates, phos- phorothioates and peptides.

Nucleic acid sequence: The phrase "nucleic acid sequence" refers to a single- or double-stranded polymer of deoxyribonucleotide or ribonucleotide bases read from the 5'- to the 3'-end. It includes chromosomal DNA, self-replicating plasmids, infectious polymers of DNA or RNA and DNA or RNA that performs a primarily structural role. "Nucleic acid sequence" also refers to a consecutive list of abbreviations, letters, characters or words, which represent nucleotides. In one embodi- ment, a nucleic acid can be a "probe" which is a relatively short nucleic acid, usually less than 100 nucleotides in length. Often a nucleic acid probe is from about 50 nucleotides in length to about 10 nucleotides in length. A "target region" of a nucleic acid is a portion of a nucleic acid that is identified to be of interest. A "coding region" of a nucleic acid is the portion of the nucleic acid, which is transcribed and translated in a sequence-specific manner to produce into a particular polypeptide or protein when placed under the control of appropriate regulatory sequences. The coding region is said to encode such a polypeptide or protein.

Oligonucleotide: The term "oligonucleotide" refers to an oligomer or polymer of ribonucleic acid (RNA) or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or mimetics thereof, as well as oligonucleotides having non-naturally-occurring portions which function similarly. Such modified or substituted oligonucle- otides are often preferred over native forms because of desirable properties such as, for example, enhanced cellular uptake, enhanced affinity for nucleic acid target and increased stability in the presence of nucleases. An oligonucleotide preferably includes two or more nucleomonomers co- valently coupled to each other by linkages (e.g., phosphodiesters) or substitute linkages.

Overhang: An "overhang" is a relatively short single-stranded nucleotide sequence on the 5'- or 3'-hydroxyl end of a double-stranded oligonucleotide molecule (also referred to as an "extension," "protruding end," or "sticky end").

Polypeptide: The terms "polypeptide", "peptide", "oligopeptide", "polypeptide", "gene product", "expression product" and "protein" are used interchangeably herein to refer to a polymer or oligo mer of consecutive amino acid residues.

Promoter: The terms "promoter", or "promoter sequence" are equivalents and as used herein, refer to a DNA sequence which when operably linked to a nucleotide sequence of interest is capable of controlling the transcription of the nucleotide sequence of interest into RNA. A pro- moter is located 5' (i.e., upstream), proximal to the transcriptional start site of a nucleotide se- quence of interest whose transcription into mRNA it controls, and provides a site for specific bind- ing by RNA polymerase and other transcription factors for initiation of transcription. The promoter does not comprise coding regions or 5 ^' untranslated regions. The promoter may for example be heterologous or homologous to the respective cell. A nucleic acid molecule sequence is "heterol- ogous to" an organism or a second nucleic acid molecule sequence if it originates from a foreign species, or, if from the same species, is modified from its original form. For example, a promoter operably linked to a heterologous coding sequence refers to a coding sequence from a species different from that from which the promoter was derived, or, if from the same species, a coding sequence which is not naturally associated with the promoter (e.g. a genetically engineered cod- ing sequence or an allele from a different ecotype or variety). Suitable promoters can be derived from genes of the host cells where expression should occur or from pathogens for this host.

Purified: As used herein, the term "purified" refers to molecules, either nucleic or amino acid se- quences that are removed from their natural environment, isolated or separated. "Substantially purified" molecules are at least 60% free, preferably at least 75% free, and more preferably at least 90% free from other components with which they are naturally associated. A purified nucleic acid sequence may be an isolated nucleic acid sequence.

Significant increase: An increase for example in enzymatic activity, gene expression, productivity or yield of a certain product, that is larger than the margin of error inherent in the measurement technique, preferably an increase by about 10% or 25% preferably by 50% or 75%, more prefer- ably 2-fold or-5 fold or greater of the activity, expression, productivity or yield of the control en- zyme or expression in the control cell, productivity or yield of the control cell, even more preferably an increase by about 10-fold or greater.

Significant decrease: A decrease for example in enzymatic activity, gene expression, productivity or yield of a certain product, that is larger than the margin of error inherent in the measurement technique, preferably a decrease by at least about 5% or 10%, preferably by at least about 20% or 25%, more preferably by at least about 50% or 75%, even more preferably by at least about 80% or 85%, most preferably by at least about 90%, 95%, 97%, 98% or 99%.

Substantially complementary: In its broadest sense, the term "substantially complementary", when used herein with respect to a nucleotide sequence in relation to a reference or target nu- cleotide sequence, means a nucleotide sequence having a percentage of identity between the substantially complementary nucleotide sequence and the exact complementary sequence of said reference or target nucleotide sequence of at least 60%, more desirably at least 70%, more desirably at least 80% or 85%, preferably at least 90%, more preferably at least 93%, still more preferably at least 95% or 96%, yet still more preferably at least 97% or 98%, yet still more pref- erably at least 99% or most preferably 100% (the later being equivalent to the term“identical” in this context). Preferably identity is assessed over a length of at least 19 nucleotides, preferably at least 50 nucleotides, more preferably the entire length of the nucleic acid sequence to said reference sequence (if not specified otherwise below). Sequence comparisons are carried out using default GAP analysis with the University of Wisconsin GCG, SEQWEB application of GAP, based on the algorithm of Needleman and Wunsch (Needleman and Wunsch (1970) J Mol. Biol. 48: 443-453; as defined above). A nucleotide sequence "substantially complementary " to a ref- erence nucleotide sequence hybridizes to the reference nucleotide sequence under low strin gency conditions, preferably medium stringency conditions, most preferably high stringency con- ditions (as defined above).

Transgene: The term "transgene" as used herein refers to any nucleic acid sequence, which is introduced into the genome of a cell by experimental manipulations. A transgene may be an "en- dogenous DNA sequence," or a "heterologous DNA sequence" (i.e., "foreign DNA"). The term "endogenous DNA sequence" refers to a nucleotide sequence, which is naturally found in the cell into which it is introduced so long as it does not contain some modification (e.g., a point mutation, the presence of a selectable marker gene, etc.) relative to the naturally-occurring sequence.

Transgenic: The term transgenic when referring to an organism means transformed, preferably stably transformed, with at least one recombinant nucleic acid molecule.

Vector: As used herein, the term "vector" refers to a nucleic acid molecule capable of transporting another nucleic acid molecule to which it has been linked. One type of vector is a genomic inte- grated vector, or "integrated vector", which can become integrated into the genomic DNA of the host cell. Another type of vector is an episomal vector, i.e., a plasmid or a nucleic acid molecule capable of extra-chromosomal replication. Vectors capable of directing the expression of genes to which they are operatively linked are referred to herein as "expression vectors". In the present specification, "plasmid" and "vector" are used interchangeably unless otherwise clear from the context.

Wild type: The term "wild type", "natural" or "natural origin" means with respect to an organism that said organism is not changed, mutated, or otherwise manipulated by man. With respect to a polypeptide or nucleic acid sequence, that the polypeptide or nucleic acid sequence is naturally occurring or available in at least one naturally occurring organism which is not changed, mutated, or otherwise manipulated by man.

A wild type of a microorganism refers to a microorganism whose genome is present in a state as before the introduction of a genetic modification of a certain gene. The genetic modification may be e.g. a deletion of a gene or a part thereof or a point mutation or the introduction of a gene.

The terms "production" or "productivity" are art-recognized and include the concentration of the fermentation product (for example, dsRNA) formed within a given time and a given fermentation volume (e.g., kg product per hour per liter). The term "efficiency of production" includes the time required for a particular level of production to be achieved (for example, how long it takes for the cell to attain a particular rate of output of a fine chemical).

The term "yield" or "product/carbon yield" is art-recognized and includes the efficiency of the con- version of the carbon source into the product (i.e., fine chemical). This is generally written as, for example, kg product per kg carbon source. By increasing the yield or production of the compound, the quantity of recovered molecules or of useful recovered molecules of that compound in a given amount of culture over a given amount of time is increased.

The term“ recombinant microorganisrri' includes microorganisms which have been genetically modified such that they exhibit an altered or different genotype and/or phenotype (e. g., when the genetic modification affects coding nucleic acid sequences of the microorganism) as compared to the wild type microorganism from which it was derived. A recombinant microorganism corn- prises at least one recombinant nucleic acid molecule.

The term "recombinant' with respect to nucleic acid molecules refers to nucleic acid molecules produced by man using recombinant nucleic acid techniques. The term comprises nucleic acid molecules which as such do not exist in nature or do not exist in the organism from which the nucleic acid molecule is derived, but are modified, changed, mutated or otherwise manipulated by man. Preferably, a "recombinant nucleic acid molecule" is a non-naturally occurring nucleic acid molecule that differs in sequence from a naturally occurring nucleic acid molecule by at least one nucleic acid. A“recombinant nucleic acid molecules” may also comprise a“recombinant con- struct” which comprises, preferably operably linked, a sequence of nucleic acid molecules not naturally occurring in that order. Preferred methods for producing said recombinant nucleic acid molecules may comprise cloning techniques, directed or non-directed mutagenesis, gene synthe- sis or recombination techniques. An example of such a recombinant nucleic acid molecule is a plasmid into which a heterologous DNA-sequence has been inserted or a gene or promoter which has been mutated compared to the gene or promoter from which the recombinant nucleic acid molecule derived. The mutation may be introduced by means of directed mutagenesis technologies known in the art or by random mutagenesis technologies such as chemical, UV light or x-ray mutagenesis or directed evolution technologies.

The term“directed evolution” is used synonymously with the term“metabolic evolution” herein and involves applying a selection pressure that favors the growth of mutants with the traits of interest. The selection pressure can be based on different culture conditions, ATP and growth coupled selection and redox related selection. The selection pressure can be carried out with batch fermentation with serial transferring inoculation or continuous culture with the same pres- sure.

The term“expression” or“gene expression” means the transcription of a specific gene(s) or spe- cific genetic vector construct. The term“expression” or“gene expression” in particular means the transcription of gene(s) or genetic vector construct into mRNA. The process includes transcription of DNA and may include processing of the resulting RNA-product. The term“expression” or“gene expression” may also include the translation of the mRNA and therewith the synthesis of the encoded protein, i.e. protein expression.

EXAMPLES

Chemicals and common methods

Standard techniques for cloning, DNA isolation, amplification and purification, for enzymatic reactions involving DNA ligase, DNA polymerase, restriction endonucleases and the like, and various separation techniques are those known and commonly employed by those skilled in the art. A number of standard techniques are described in M. Green & J. Sambrook (2012)

Molecular Cloning: a laboratory manual, 4th Edition Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, CSH, New York; Ausubel et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Wiley Online Library; Maniatis et al., 1982 Molecular Cloning, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Plainview, N.Y.; Wu (Ed.) 1993 Meth. Enzymol. 218, Part I; Wu (Ed.) 1979 Meth Enzymol. 68; Wu et al., (Eds.) 1983 Meth. Enzymol. 100 and 101 ; Grossman and Moldave (Eds.) 1980 Meth. Enzymol. 65; Miller (Ed.) 1972 Experiments in Molecular Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.; Old and Primrose, 1981 Principles of Gene Manipulation, University of California Press, Berkeley; Schleif and Wensink, 1982 Practical Methods in Molecular Biology; Glover (Ed.) 1985 DNA Cloning Vol. I and II, IRL Press, Oxford, UK; Hames and Higgins (Eds.) 1985 Nucleic Acid Hybridization, IRL Press, Oxford, UK; and Setlow and Hollaender 1979 Genetic Engineering: Principles and Methods, Vols. 1 -4, Plenum Press, New York.

If not stated otherwise herein, abbreviations and nomenclature, where employed, are deemed standard in the field and commonly used in professional journals such as those cited herein. Example 1

100 potential nitrilases were screened for activity of conversion acetonitrile to acrylic acid.

Donor organism and SEQ ID of the amino acid sequence of 37 of these nitrilases are listed in Table 1. The coding region of the nitrilases were optimized for expression in E.coli, these sequences synthesized and cloned in the expression vector pDHE (SEQ ID 75) (Stueckler et al. (2010) Tetrahedron 66(3-2).

The expression vectors were transformed into E.coli, expression of the nitrilases induced and the culture harvested and tested for activity as described in WQ200132890 and Example 2.

Table 1 : Donor Organism and SEQ ID of 32 tested nitrilases

Example 2

In a 1.5 ml. Eppendorf tube, 20 pl_ of acrylonitrile were added to a 50 mM phosphate buffer solution at pH 7. To start the screening, 100 mI_ of E. coli cell suspension containing different nitrilases were added and the mixture shaken at 25 °C. After 24 hours the reaction mixture was centrifuged and the supernatant injected in a HPLC. The conversion was calculated as reacted acrylonitrile.

Table 2: Acrylonitrile conversion of 32 tested nitrilases

Example 3

Water and 28 g of Acetonitrile (ACN) were placed in a reactor. The amount of water was adjusted so that the total amount of water + biocatalyst was 2798 g.

The biocatalyst was used in the form of a concentrate cell suspension containing BD5220 (Seq. ID N. 2) and it was added to the reactor, whereby the reaction started. During the reaction, 1202 g of additional acrylonitrile was added. The temperature was kept at 26°C and the ACN concen- tration was measured by on-line FTIR, and the rate of addition of ACN was adjusted so that the ACN concentration in the reaction mixture was kept constant at 1 ± 0.2% (w/w) until the entire ACN has been added to the reaction. The reaction was stopped after ACN concentration had decreased to <100 ppm. At the end of the reaction, the final concentration of ammonium acrylate was 51.2 wt% (acrylic acid 41.5 wt%).

Example 4

Water and 28 g of ACN were placed in a reactor. The amount of water was adjusted so that the total amount of water + biocatalyst was 3107 g.

The biocatalyst was used in the form of a concentrate cell suspension containing a nitrilase from Flavihumibacter solisilvae (Seq. ID N. 6) and it was added to the reactor, whereby the reaction started. During the reaction, 1005 g of additional acrylonitrile was added. The temperature was kept at 30°C and the ACN concentration was measured by on-line FTIR, and the rate of addition of ACN was adjusted so that the ACN concentration in the reaction mixture was kept constant at 1 ± 0.2% (w/w) until the entire ACN has been added to the reaction. The reaction was stopped after ACN concentration had decreased to <100 ppm. At the end of the reaction, the final concen- tration of ammonium acrylate was 41 .9 wt% (acrylic acid 33.9 wt%).