When α-aminophenylacetonitrile was fed to fungi, yeast, Streptomycetes, or bacteria growing in nutrient and Theriault`s media, most of them were found to accumulate phenylglycine in the media. Some of them, A. unguis, A. oryzae, P. purpurogenum, B. spectabilis, B. subtilis, E. coli, and R. rubra cultured in the nutrient media, and P. varioti, B. spectabilis, G. subo.xydans, R. glutinis, and R. toruloides cultured in the Theriault`s media showed accumulation of phenylglycine in a large quantity. It was found that, when the organisms were examined by a cell contact method for the converion of the substrate to phenylglycine by incubation of the substrate with harvested cells in a buffer for 5 hrs, P. digitatum, B. spectabilis, and R. toruloides grown in the Theriault`s media and B. spectabilis, R. glutinis, and R. toruloides grown in the nutrient medium showed strong nitrite group hydrolyzing enzymes` activity when they were induced by the substrate. Most of them did not show any conversion of the substrate to phenylglycine or phenylglycineamide without preinduction except A. gigantus, A. flaviple, A. panamensis, P. varioti, E. coli, P. vulgaris, P. aeruginosa, and R. toruloides. Also, no microorganisms examined in this experiment showed production of phenylglycineamide before or after pre-induction in the culture or in the cell contact media.