Patent ID: 7638617

Claim:
An isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having nitrilase activity, said polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 with at least one amino acid substitution, or both amino acid substitutions, selected from the group consisting of: a) a substitution at amino acid residue 168 with methionine or threonine; and b) a substitution at amino acid residue 201 with glutamine, glycine, histidine, lysine, asparagine, serine, alanine, cysteine, or threonine; wherein said polypeptide provides at least a 1.5-fold increase in nitrilase activity relative to the nitrilase activity of the Acidovorax facilis 72W nitrilase when converting glycolonitrile to glycolic acid under identical reaction conditions.