Biotechnology of fungal lipases

Abstract

Fungal lipases are incomparable biocatalysts which find applications in a number of catalytic processes which are of industrial potential. Many fermentation strategies have been designed for easy cultivation and scale-up of fungal lipases. However, two major methods are used for their production: submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid-state fermentation (SSF). Both the methods are employed at industrial scale, and their use is mainly dependent on the fungal product to be produced. A variety of strategies have been developed for their purification and characterization in order to know the optimal conditions for their applications. Fungal lipases are exceptional with considerable variations in their properties such as substrate specificity (chemo-, regio-, and enantiospecificity), temperature tolerance, pH tolerance, and organic solvent stability. Based on the variations in the properties, a wide array of lipases is available which can be used as per the specific need of any industrial process. Presently fungal lipases find many industrial applications such as oleochemical, food and feed, dairy, agrochemical, biomedical, biodiesel, detergent, pulp and paper, biosensors, waste remediation, leather processing, polymer synthesis, etc.