Laccases (benzenediol oxygen oxidoreductases, EC 1.10.3.2) are polyphenol oxidases (PPO) that catalyze the oxidation of various substituted phenolic compounds by using molecular oxygen as the electron acceptor. The ability of laccases to act on a wide range of substrates makes them highly useful biocatalysts for various biotechnological applications. To date, laccases have mostly been isolated and characterized from plants and fungi, and only fungal laccases are used currently in biotechnological applications. In contrast, little is known about bacterial laccases, although recent rapid progress in the whole genome analysis suggests that the enzymes are widespread in bacteria. Since bacterial genetic tools and biotechnological processes are well established, so developing bacterial laccases would be significantly important. This review summarizes the distribution of laccases among bacteria, their functions, comparison with fungal laccases and their applications.

No abstract

The use of drug substances derived from plants, fungi, bacteria, and marine organisms are ''Mother Nature Gift'' for diseases of mankind. Many of these are discovered serendipitously and have a long tradition in medicine.

No abstract

In silico approaches have been widely recognised to be useful for drug discovery. Here, we consider the significance of available databases of medicinal plants and chemo- and bioinformatics tools for in silico drug discovery beyond the traditional use of folk medicines. This review contains a practical example of the application of combined chemo- and bioinformatics methods to study pleiotropic therapeutic effects (known and novel) of 50 medicinal plants from Traditional Indian Medicine.