Advances in microbial amylases

Abstract

This review makes a comprehensive survey of microbial amylases, i.e. alpha-amylase, beta-amylase and glucoamylase. Amylases are among the most important enzymes and are of great significance in present-day biotechnology. Although they can be derived from several sources, such as plants, animals and micro-organisms, the enzymes from microbial sources generally meet industrial demands. Microbial amylases could be potentially useful in the pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries if enzymes with suitable properties could be prepared. With the advent of new frontiers in biotechnology, the spectrum of amylase application has widened in many other fields, such as clinical, medicinal and analytical chemistries, as well as their widespread application in starch saccharification and in the textile, food, brewing and distilling industries. In this review, after a brief description of the sources of amylases, we discuss the molecular biology of amylases, describing structures, cloning, sequences, and protoplast fusion and mutagenesis. This is followed by sections on their production and finally the properties of various amylases.

Cellulolytic enzymes on lignocellulosic substrates in solid state fermentation by Aspergillus niger

“…Pretreatment process may improve substrate utilization by the microbes and enhance enzyme yields 25,26 . In the present study, only native lignocellulosic substrates without pretreatment were used.…”

Structure and dynamics of Candida rugosa lipase: the role of organic solvent

“…CRL is a versatile biocatalyst which catalyzes hydrolysis, alcoholysis, esterification and transesterification of triacylglycerols and other hydrophobic esters. [6] The crystal structure of this 57 kDa protein has been resolved at 2.06 and 2.1 Å resolutions with two different…”

Enzymatic properties and primary structures of two α-amylase isozymes from the Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai

“…This enzyme has been used for the degradation and saccharification of starch in the fields of food, bakery, paper, sugar and starch industries (Monfort et a., 1996;Pandey et al, 2000;Van der Maarel et al, 2002;Gupta et al, 2003). -Amylases distributes over bacteria, fungi, plants, invertebrates, and higher animals and many of these enzymes belong to glycoside-hydrolase-family 13 (GHF13) (Jensen and Olsen 1992;Henry et al, 1993;Iefuji et al, 1996;Le Moine et al, 1997;Koyama et al, 2000;Saxena et al, 2007;Tripathi et al, 2007;Hmidet et al, 2008;Elarbi et al, 2009;Nikapitiya et al, 2009).…”