Industrial enzymes play important role in many fields, including pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, food industry and other processes based on biochemical reaction. In recent years, due to their ability of operating at mild conditions and positional specificity, the industrial biological catalysis through enzymes has been developed rapidly. For improving the efficiency or activity of enzymes, gene engineering technology has been applied to change the amino acid sequence of enzymes.
Plants and microorganisms are ideal host for producing recombinant enzymes. With biotechnology, gene coding enzymes can be insert into host's genome, enzymes can be isolated from host. Besides, microorganisms grown under extreme conditions, for example, high temperature, high pressure, high pH and high salinity, can generate enzymes with high tolerance of extreme conditions, which has great potential in industrial producing. It has been estimated that around 50% enzyme market is supplied with recombinant enzymes.
Process of Industrial Enzymes Production with Yeast (Suchová, et al. 2022)
Currently, among widely used enzymes, hydrolases, including proteases and lipases, are the dominant type. They play important role in many fields, such as food industry, chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, waste disposal and many other industrial productions.
Proteases can catalyze proteolysis, which is resolving proteins into polypeptide or amino acid and promoting forming new proteins. It's widely used in industry, medicine and also used as a tool for basic research.
| Enzymes | Mechanism | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Serine proteases | Using a serine alcohol as the nucleophilic amino acid at active site. | Subtilisin lactoferrin chymotrypsin A lactoferrin nucleoporin. |
| Cysteine proteases | Using a cysteine thiol as the nucleophilic amino acid at active site. | Papain bromelain cathepsin K calpain Hedgehog protein. |
| Threonine proteases | Using a threonine secondary alcohol as the nucleophilic amino acid at active site. | Archaean proteasome ornithine acetyltransferase. |
| Aspartic proteases | Using an aspartate carboxylic acid as the nucleophilic amino acid at active site. | Beta-secretase 1 (BACE1) cathepsin chymosin pepsin presenilin renin. |
| Glutamic proteases | Using a glutamate carboxylic acid as the nucleophilic amino acid at active site. | Scytalidoglutamic peptidase aspergilloglutamic peptidase |
| Metalloproteases | Using a metal, usually zinc as the nucleophilic amino acid at active site. | Metalloexopeptidases metalloendopeptidases |
| Asparagine peptide lyases | Using an asparagine to perform an elimination reaction, usually not requiring water. | Picobirnavirus self-cleaving protein nodavirus coat protein tetravirus coat protein aquareovirus coat protein |
They are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of lipids, such as esters of cholesterol, phospholipids, lipid-soluble vitamins and sphingomyelinases. Lipases are widely used in producing washing detergent, as well as fuels transforming and synthesis of chemical reagents. And they can also be used to diagnose pancreas diseases.
Carbohydrase is a set of enzymes that can catalyze hydrolysis of carbohydrate, which is turning carbohydrate into simple sugars.
Amylase can catalyze the hydrolysis of starch into sugars. It's important in food industry, such as fermentation of beer and liquor. And it's also utilized as a flour additive, which imparts flavor to bread.
By measuring blood serum amylase can diagnose diseases, including acute inflammation of the pancreas, perforated peptic ulcer, torsion of an ovarian cyst, strangulation, ileus, mesenteric ischemia, macroamylasemia and mumps.
| Amylase | Source | Tissue | Reaction products |
|---|---|---|---|
| α-amylase | Animals, plants, microorganisms | Salivary gland, pancreas | Maltose, dextrin, etc. |
| β-amylase | Plants, microorganisms | Seeds, fruits | Maltose |
| γ-amylase | Animals, microorganisms | Small intestine | Glucose |
Pectinase is a set of enzymes that catalyze resolving pectin, including pectolyase, pectozyme, and polygalacturonase. It's widely utilized in degradation of plant cell wall, which is important in plant biology research. Besides, it's important in juice production and wine production as well.
Xylase catalyzes resolving xylan into simple sugar, which can be used to resolve plant cell wall, producing xylitol as sweetening agent for diabetics and producing animal feed.
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