The recent use of optically active 3-substituted gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) analogs in human therapeutics has identified a need for an efficient, stereoselective method of their synthesis. Here, bacterial strains were screened for enzymes capable of stereospecific hydrolysis of 3-substituted glutarimides to generate (R)-3-substituted glutaric acid monoamides. The bacteria Alcaligenes faecalis NBRC13111 and Burkholderia phytofirmans DSM17436 were discovered to hydrolyze 3-(4-chlorophenyl) glutarimide (CGI) to (R)-3-(4-chlorophenyl) glutaric acid monoamide (CGM) with 98.1 % enantiomeric excess (e.e.) and 97.5 % e.e., respectively. B. phytofirmans DSM17436 could also hydrolyze 3-isobutyl glutarimide (IBI) to produce (R)-3-isobutyl glutaric acid monoamide (IBM) with 94.9 % e.e. BpIH, an imidase, was purified from B. phytofirmans DSM17436 and found to generate (R)-CGM from CGI with specific activity of 0.95 U/mg. The amino acid sequence of BpIH had a 75 % sequence identity to that of allantoinase from A. faecalis NBRC13111 (AfIH). The purified recombinant BpIH and AfIH catalyzed (R)-selective hydrolysis of CGI and IBI. In addition, a preliminary investigation of the enzymatic properties of BpIH and AfIH revealed that both enzymes were stable in the range of pH 6-10, with an optimal pH of 9.0, stable at temperatures below 40 A degrees C, and were not metalloproteins. These results indicate that the use of this class of hydrolase to generate optically active 3-substituted glutaric acid monoamide could simplify the production of specific chiral GABA analogs for drug therapeutics.