Food-processing enzymes from recombinant microorganisms—a review

Abstract

Enzymes are commonly used in food processing and in the production of food ingredients. Enzymes traditionally isolated from culturable microorganisms, plants, and mammalian tissues are often not well-adapted to the conditions used in modern food production methods. The use of recombinant DNA technology has made it possible to manufacture novel enzymes suitable for specific food-processing conditions. Such enzymes may be discovered by screening microorganisms sampled from diverse environments or developed by modification of known enzymes using modern methods of protein engineering or molecular evolution. As a result, several important food-processing enzymes such as amylases and lipases with properties tailored to particular food applications have become available. Another important achievement is improvement of microbial production strains. For example, several microbial strains recently developed for enzyme production have been engineered to increase enzyme yield by deleting native genes encoding extracellular proteases. Moreover, certain fungal production strains have been modified to reduce or eliminate their potential for production of toxic secondary metabolites. In this article, we discuss the safety of microorganisms used as hosts for enzyme-encoding genes, the construction of recombinant production strains, and methods of improving enzyme properties. We also briefly describe the manufacture and safety assessment of enzyme preparations and summarize options for submitting information on enzyme preparations to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Enhancing the Nutritional Value of Canola (Brassica napus) Meal Using a Submerged Fungal Incubation Process

“…Fungi selected for initial evaluation included Aurobasidium pullulans, Trichoderma reesei, Fusarium venenatum, Pichia kudriavzevii, and Mucor circinelloides. Several of these fungi are known to produce cellulose degrading enzymes (Wiebe, 2002;Olempska-Beer, Merker, Ditto, & DiNovi, 2006;Seiboth, Ivanova, & Seidl-Seiboth, 2011;Prajapati, Jani, & Khanda, 2013;Ratledge, 2013). Studies have shown that F. venenatum is capable of producing mycotoxins, however their production can be avoided by controlling fermentation conditions (Wiebe, 2002).…”

Characterization of Lipase from Bacillus subtilisI-4 and Its Potential Use in Oil Contaminated Wastewater

“…They are water-soluble enzymes that act in catalyzing the hydrolysis of ester bonds in water-insoluble lipid substrates (Guo and Xu 2005). Lipases are ubiquitously produced by the plants (Bhardwaj et al 2001;Belguith et al 2009); animals (Carriere et al 1994); and microorganisms (Olempska-Beer et al 2006;Ramesh et al 2013). Microbial lipases are the preferred potent source due to several industrial potentials (Hasan et al 2006;Riaz et al 2010;Veerapagu et al 2013).…”

Protein Engineering Methods and Applications

“…The deletion of native genes encoding extracellular proteases, for example, increased enzyme production yields of microbial hosts. In fungi, for example, the production of toxic secondary metabolites has been reduced to improve their productivity as enzyme-producing hosts (Olempska-Beer et al, 2006).…”