  HCN, HNC, and their isotopologues are ubiquitous molecules that can serve as
chemical thermometers and evolutionary tracers to characterize star-forming
regions. Despite their importance in carrying information that is vital to
studies of the chemistry and evolution of star-forming regions, the collision
rates of some of these molecules have not been available for rigorous studies
in the past. We perform an up-to-date gas and dust chemical characterization of
two different star-forming regions, TMC 1-C and NGC 1333-C7, using new
collisional rates of HCN, HNC, and their isotopologues. We investigated the
possible effects of the environment and stellar feedback in their chemistry and
their evolution. With millimeter observations, we derived their column
densities, the C and N isotopic fractions, the isomeric ratios, and the
deuterium fractionation. The continuum data at 3 mm and 850 $\mu$m allowed us
to compute the emissivity spectral index and look for grain growth as an
evolutionary tracer. The H$^{13}$CN/HN$^{13}$C ratio is anticorrelated with the
deuterium fraction of HCN, thus it can readily serve as a proxy for the
temperature. The spectral index $(\beta\sim 1.34-2.09)$ shows a tentative
anticorrelation with the H$^{13}$CN/HN$^{13}$C ratio, suggesting grain growth
in the evolved, hotter, and less deuterated sources. Unlike TMC 1-C, the
south-to-north gradient in dust temperature and spectral index observed in NGC
1333-C7 suggests feedback from the main NGC 1333 cloud. With this up-to-date
characterization of two star-forming regions, we found that the chemistry and
the physical properties are tightly related. The dust temperature, deuterium
fraction, and the spectral index are complementary evolutionary tracers. The
large-scale environmental factors may dominate the chemistry and evolution in
clustered star-forming regions.
