Enzymatic Processes in Marine Biotechnology

Abstract

In previous review articles the attention of the biocatalytically oriented scientific community towards the marine environment as a source of biocatalysts focused on the habitat-related properties of marine enzymes. Updates have already appeared in the literature, including marine examples of oxidoreductases, hydrolases, transferases, isomerases, ligases, and lyases ready for food and pharmaceutical applications. Here a new approach for searching the literature and presenting a more refined analysis is adopted with respect to previous surveys, centering the attention on the enzymatic process rather than on a single novel activity. Fields of applications are easily individuated: (i) the biorefinery value-chain, where the provision of biomass is one of the most important aspects, with aquaculture as the prominent sector; (ii) the food industry, where the interest in the marine domain is similarly developed to deal with the enzymatic procedures adopted in food manipulation; (iii) the selective and easy extraction/modification of structurally complex marine molecules, where enzymatic treatments are a recognized tool to improve efficiency and selectivity; and (iv) marine biomarkers and derived applications (bioremediation) in pollution monitoring are also included in that these studies could be of high significance for the appreciation of marine bioprocesses.

The Holo-Transcriptome of the Zoantharian Protopalythoa variabilis (Cnidaria: Anthozoa): A Plentiful Source of Enzymes for Potential Application in Green Chemistry, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

“…Some recent examples of marine-derived enzymes include the new flavin-dependent halogenase from a marine sponge metagenome [ 11 ] and several new α-amylases isolated from a sea anemone microbial community [ 12 ]. In two recent articles, the potential of marine biomes, particularly microbiomes, was emphasized, especially with regard to marine enzymes [ 13 , 14 ]. The successful bioprospection of natural compounds from marine species has been reported primarily from invertebrates of the phyla Porifera and Cnidaria [ 15 ].…”

A Comparative Study on Asymmetric Reduction of Ketones Using the Growing and Resting Cells of Marine-Derived Fungi

“…Fungi from marine environments are thoroughly adapted to surviving and growing under harsh conditions [ 46 ]. Such habitat-related characteristics are desirable features from a general biotechnological perspective and are of key importance to exploit a microorganism’s enzymatic potential [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Indeed, fungi host novel enzymes showing optimal activities at extreme values of salt concentrations, pH and temperature, compared to enzymes isolated from terrestrial origins [ 51 , 52 , 53 ].…”

Exploring Marine Environments for the Identification of Extremophiles and Their Enzymes for Sustainable and Green Bioprocesses

“…The green biotechnology for the sustainable production of bioenergy can take advantages from marine extremozymes that indeed can be useful for the production of biofuels like bioethanol, biodiesel, and biohydrogen [37]: some remarkable examples are reported in Table 1. Catenovulum sp.…”