Isolation, Optimization and Purification of Acidic Nitrilase from Strain AP 5

Strain AP 5 is a Gram +ve, cocci and non spore forming in nature and has been reported to produce nitrilase enzyme that converts benzonitrile to benzamide. The production as well as the reaction conditions and purification of nitrilase enzymes from this strain has been optimized in present article. The strain AP 5 produce nitrilase enzyme (3.2 U/mg dcw) in M5 medium at pH 6.0. Under the optimized reaction conditions the strain AP 5 exhibited maximum nitrilase activity [6.5 U/mg dcw (milligram dry cell weight)] at 30 °C in 0.1M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 5.5). the enzyme was purified up to 1.5 fold of purification with an yield of 40%.