Acrylonitrile Pathway Map

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This pathway was contributed by Xiao-yun Zhang and Stephen Stephens, University of Minnesota.

Acrylonitrile is microbially metabolized by Pseudomonas chlororaphis to acrylamide, a building block for various plastic polymers. Over 200,000 tons of acrylamide are produced annually in this way, 90% of which is used in the production of polyacrylamide polymers. These polymers are used for water treatment, storage, distribution and in polyacrylamide gels used for macromolecular analysis (Glazer, A.W. and Nikaido, H. Microbial Biotechnology. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1995).

Pseudomonas chlororaphis k22 can degrade acrylonitrile directly to acrylate using aliphatic nitrilase (Kobayashi et al., 1992). Pseudomonas chlororaphis B23 uses nitrile hydratase and amidase to get to the same point (Nagasawa et al., 1992).

The following is a text-format acrylonitrile degradation pathway map. An organism which can initiate the pathway is given, but other organisms may also carry out later steps. Follow the links for more information on compounds or reactions. This map is also available in graphic (12k) format.

       Acrylonitrile                    Acrylonitrile
Pseudomonas chlororaphis k22     Pseudomonas chlororaphis B23
             |                                |
             |                                |
             |                                | nitrile hydratase
             |                                |
             |                                |
             | aliphatic                      v
             | nitrilase                  Acrylamide      
             |                                |
             |                                |
             |                                | amidase
             |                                |
             |                                |
             |                                v            from the
             +------------------------->  Acrylate <------ Styrene Pathway
                                              |
                                              |
                                              | glutaconate CoA-transferase
                                              |
                                              |
                                              v
                                          Acrylyl-CoA
                                              |
                                              |
                                              | lactoyl-CoA dehydratase
                                              |
                                              |
                                              v
                                         Lactoyl-CoA
                                              |
                                              |
                                              | propionate CoA-transferase
                                              |
                                              |
                                              v
                                          L-Lactate
                                              |
                                              |
                                              |
                                              |
                                              |
                                              v 
                                 Intermediary Metabolism (KEGG)

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Page Author(s): Xiao-yun Zhang and Stephen Stephens

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