Gene Cloning, Overexpression, and Characterization of the Nitrilase from Rhodococcus rhodochrous tg1-A6 in E. coli

A DNA fragment containing the entire coding sequence of nitrilase gene was amplified from Rhodococcus rhodochrous tg1-A6 with high nitrilase activity using PCR and sequenced. The open reading frame of the nitrilase gene contains 1,101 base pairs, which encodes a putative polypeptide of 366 amino acid residues. The nitrilase gene was cloned into an expression vector pET-28a and expressed in an Escherichia coli strain BL21(DE3). The enzymatic activity of nitrilase, which converts various nitriles to the corresponding carboxylic acids, was detected to reach 24.5 U/ml at 9 h in the recombinant bacteria.