A Gram-negative bacterial strain, identified as Acidovorax facilis strain 72W, has been isolated from soil by enrichment using 2-ethylsuccinonitrile as the sole nitrogen source. This strain grows on a variety of aliphatic mono- and dinitriles. Experiments using various heating regimes indicate that nitrile hydratase, amidase and nitrilase activities are present. The nitrilase is efficient at hydrolyzing aliphatic dinitriles to cyanoacid intermediates. It has a strong bias for C-3-C-6 dinitriles over mononitriles of the same chain length. Whole, resting cell hydrolysis of 2-methylglutaronitrile results in 4-cyanopentanoic acid and 2-methylglutaric acid as the major products. Heating, at least: 20 min at 50 degrees C, eliminates nitrile hydratase and amidase activities, resulting in greater than 97% selectivity to 4-cyanopentanoic acid. The nitrilase activity has good heal stability, showing a half-life of 22.7 h at 50 degrees C and a temperature optimum of at least 65 degrees C for activity. The strain has been deposited as ATCC 55746.