Enzymes of industrial interest

Abstract

For many years, industrial enzymes have played an important role in the benefit of our society due to their many useful properties and a wide range of applications. They are key elements in the progress of many industries including foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, therapy, personal care, animal feed, detergents, pulp and paper, textiles, leather, chemicals and biofuels. During recent decades, microbial enzymes have replaced many plant and animal enzymes. This is because microbial enzymes are widely available and produced economically in short fermentations and inexpensive media. Screening is simple, and strain improvement for increased production has been very successful. The advances in recombinant DNA technology have had a major effect on production levels of enzymes and represent a way to overproduce industrially important microbial, plant and animal enzymes. It has been calculated that 50-60% of the world enzyme market is supplied with recombinant enzymes. Molecular methods, including genomics and metagenomics, are being used for the discovery of new enzymes from microbes. Also, directed evolution has allowed the design of enzyme specificities and better performance.