Figure 5.

The hydrolysis of nitriles in the plant environment by plant‐associated bacteria. The figure shows four hypothesized roles for bacterial nitrilase enzymes during plant colonization: (A) the hydrolysis of plant nitriles generated during cyanogenic glycoside (CYG) and glucosinolate (GLUC) metabolism, for the purpose of detoxification or assimilation; (B) the hydrolysis of arylacetonitriles such as indole‐3‐acetonitrile (IAN), for the purpose of indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA) biosynthesis; (C) the detoxification of cyanide (CN) and β‐cyano‐l‐alanine (Ala(CN)) synthesized endogenously or by other microbes, which results in the formation of aspartic acid (Asp) and ammonia (NH₃) that can be assimilated as carbon and nitrogen sources; (D) the detoxification and assimilation of CN and Ala(CN) synthesized by plants.