Psychrophiles and Psychrozymes: Structural Adaptations and Applications

Abstract

Psychrophilic microorganisms, also known as cold-adapted microorganism are well distributed in the environments, can easily be differentiated from mesophiles due to their ability to grow in the low temperature. At the lower temperature, these microbes have slow metabolic rate and have high catalytic efficiency in comparison with the mesophilic counterparts. The enzymes released from those cold-loving microbes are known as cold-adapted enzymes or psychrozymes, a great player in the field of biotechnology and commercial applications. Psychrophiles have wax esters which plays key role in membrane fluidity and the cis trans polymerization in their enzymes helps in controlling protein folding rates in the low temperature and keep them active. They also contain cold shock domain, antifreeze protein. In this review we have provided most recent information on the psychrophilic microbes and their adaptive mechanisms. These cold loving microbes produce various types of cold-adapted enzymes applicable in the industrial sectors. These types of cold loving enzymes are often used in many commercial fields. viz. pharmacy, paper pulp, cosmetics, animal feed, detergent, textile etc. These also play a valuable role in molecular biology and in bioremediation. This article also gives an insight to the successful utilization of psychrophilic enzymes in the industrial as well as in biotechnological field.