Catalyzes the hydration of cyanide to formamide. Degradation of cyanide may be important for plant pathogenic fungi in infection of cyanogenic plants (PubMed:17061133, PubMed:23475593, Ref.9). Can also transform some nitriles like 2-cyanopyridine and fumaronitrile (Ref.9). formamide = H2O + hydrogen cyanide Optimum pH is 8-9. Active from pH 5.5 to pH 10. Optimum temperature is 45 degrees Celsius. Oligomer of dimers, forming left-handed helical fibers. By cyanide. Belongs to the carbon-nitrogen hydrolase superfamily. Nitrilase family. It was initially shown that the substrate specificities of the enzyme natively expressed in Aspergillus niger and the recombinant enzyme expressed in E.coli were different (PubMed:17061133), and it was hypothesized that the difference may be due to a misfolding or a post-translational modification (PubMed:21210990). However, both papers were corrected (PubMed:23455586) or retracted (PubMed:23870008), because it was shown that the 2 enzymes analyzed were different in terms of their primary structure (Ref.7).