Abstract
After prolonged incubation on shale oil as the sole source of nitrogen, microbial cultures were obtained that degraded nitriles. These cultures degraded aliphatic nitriles, but did not degrade hydrocarbons or heterocyclic nitrogen compounds found in this oil. Lower-molecular-weight nitriles were biodegraded more rapidly than were higher-molecular-weight nitriles. AP. aeruginosa strain, isolated from one of the enrichments, was able to utilize the pure nitriles, undecyl cyanide, undecanenitrile, and stearonitrile as sole sources of carbon and nitrogen, and was able to remove the series of nitriles from the oil in pure culture.
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Aislabie, J., Atlas, R.M. Microbial Upgrading of Shale Oils Removal of Nitriles. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 20, 799–807 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936526
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936526