Enzymes are widely used in the food industry. Their use as a supplement to the raw material for animal feed is a current research topic. Although there are several studies on the application of enzyme additives in the animal feed industry, it is necessary to search for new enzymes, as well as to utilize bioinformatics tools for the design of specific enzymes that work in certain environmental conditions and substrates. This will allow the improvement of the productive parameters in animals, reducing costs and making the processes more efficient. Technological needs have considered these catalysts as essential in many industrial sectors and research is constantly being carried out to optimize their use in those processes. This review describes the enzymes used in animal nutrition, their mode of action, their production and new sources of production as well as studies on different animal models to evaluate their effect on the productive performance intended for the production of animal feed.

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Activity levels of extracellular hydrolytic enzymes produced by Stenocarpella maydis, a fungal pathogen of maize, have so far not been reported. Production of xylanase, cellulase, and acid protease by this ascomycete using different culture media in solid-state and submerged fermentation was studied. In solid-state fermentation, polyurethane foam was used as an inert support, and corncob, corn leaves, and broken corn were used as biodegradable supports. The highest xylanase activity was produced in the medium with xylan in both fermentation systems, reaching 18,020 U/L and 19,266 U/L for submerged and solid-state fermentation, respectively. Cellulase production was observed only in the culture medium with carboxymethylcellulose, obtaining values of 7,872 U/L in submerged fermentation and 9,439 U/L in solid-state fermentation. The acid protease was produced only in minimal medium with glucose in acidic pH, reaching the highest levels of activity in SSF (806 U/L). The corncob was the best biodegradable support for the production of xylanases and acid protease. Two isoenzymes of xylanase and cellulase were observed in both fermentation systems, and three isoenzymes of xylanase were produced on the biodegradable supports.

This chapter deals with the topic of bioinformatics, computational, mathematics, and statistics tools applied to biology, essential for the analysis and characterization of biological molecules, in particular proteins, which play an important role in all cellular and evolutionary processes of the organisms. In recent decades, with the next generation sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, it has facilitated the collection and analysis of a large amount of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data from different organisms that have allowed predictions on the regulation of expression, transcription, translation, structure, and mechanisms of action of proteins as well as homology, mutations, and evolutionary processes that generate structural and functional changes over time. Although the information in the databases is greater every day, all bioinformatics tools continue to be constantly modified to improve performance that leads to more accurate predictions regarding protein functionality, which is why bioinformatics research remains a great challenge.

Stenocarpella maydis and Sporisorium reilianum are phytopathogenic fungi that cause white rot in corn cob and head smut in maize Zea mays L. respectively, diseases that are spread worldwide and cause many economic losses. In this chapter the characteristics of the above diseases, such as their life cycle, pathogenicity factors, control methods, as well as the biotechnological potential of the fungi involved in this processes are described, specifically in connection to their extracellular enzymes.