Microbial Enzymes: Tools for Biotechnological Processes

Abstract

Microbial enzymes are of great importance in the development of industrial bioprocesses. Current applications are focused on many different markets including pulp and paper, leather, detergents and textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemical, food and beverages, biofuels, animal feed and personal care, among others. Today there is a need for new, improved or/and more versatile enzymes in order to develop more novel, sustainable and economically competitive production processes. Microbial diversity and modern molecular techniques, such as metagenomics and genomics, are being used to discover new microbial enzymes whose catalytic properties can be improved/modified by different strategies based on rational, semi-rational and random directed evolution. Most industrial enzymes are recombinant forms produced in bacteria and fungi.

Research Article Characterization and phylogenetic affiliation of Actinobacteria from tropical soils with potential uses for agro-industrial processes.

“…The microbial amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) is among the most relevant classes of enzymes due to the wide range application in industrial biotechnological processes such as processed food, fermentation, and pharmaceutical purposes (de Souza and Oliveira Magalhães, 2010;Adrio and Demain, 2014).…”

Phylogeny, classification and metagenomic bioprospecting of microbial acetyl xylan esterases

“…Attempts to address the various limitations of functional metagenomics include selective enrichment of the uncultured microbial communities prior to construction of metagenomic [59,109,[127][128][129][130][131] to improve functional expression of heterologous genes. Recently, metagenomic libraries from thermophilic habitats were successfully screened for novel esterases using the bacterium Thermus thermophilus as host [132].…”

Identification and Molecular Characterization of Genes Coding Pharmaceutically Important Enzymes from Halo-Thermo Tolerant Bacillus

“…The majority of the industrial enzymes are of microbial origin 14 and prepared as recombinant proteins mostly in bacteria and/or yeast as the host expression system. [15][16][17] Microbial enzymes are preferred over plant or animal sources due to their economic production costs and simplicity of the modification and optimization process. They are relatively more stable than corresponding enzymes derived from plants or animals and they provide a greater diversity of catalytic activities.…”

“…19 Extremophile microorganisms produce enzymes with great stability under harsh conditions which are regarded as incompatible environmental properties for biological systems. 15 The halo-thermotolerant Bacillus sp. SL-1 is a Grampositive, spore-forming bacterium that was isolated from Aran-Bidgol Saline Lake in central region of Iran as introduced in previous study.…”

“…23 With the recent advances in biotechnology, various enzymes have been identified and designed or purposely engineered to produce more (and most likely new) chemicals and materials from cheaper (and renewable) resources, which will consequently contribute to establishing a bio-based economy. 15 The halo-thermotolerant Bacillus sp. SL-1 as a new and locally isolated extremophile can be regarded as a resource for many useful pharmaceutical enzymes on commercial scales.…”