In today's world, there is an increasing trend towards the use of renewable, cheap and readily available biomass in the production of a wide variety of fine and bulk chemicals in different biorefineries. Biorefineries utilize the activities of microbial cells and their enzymes to convert biomass into target products. Many of these processes require enzymes which are operationally stable at high temperature thus allowing e.g. easy mixing, better substrate solubility, high mass transfer rate, and lowered risk of contamination. Thermophiles have often been proposed as sources of industrially relevant thermostable enzymes. Here we discuss existing and potential applications of thermophiles and thermostable enzymes with focus on conversion of carbohydrate containing raw materials. Their importance in biorefineries is explained using examples of lignocellulose and starch conversions to desired products. Strategies that enhance thermostablity of enzymes both in vivo and in vitro are also assessed. Moreover, this review deals with efforts made on developing vectors for expressing recombinant enzymes in thermophilic hosts.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186%2F1475-2859-6-9.pdf

Potential and utilization of thermophiles and thermostable enzymes in biorefining

A thermostable α-amylase from a moderately thermophilic Bacillus subtilis strain for starch processing

Summary This review covers the progress made in research on microbial a-amylase, a highly demanded industrial enzyme in various sectors such as food, pharmaceuticals, textiles, detergents, etc. Amylases are of ubiquitous occurrence and hold the maximum market share of enzyme sales. The article surveys the a-amylase family and the major characteristics, microbial sources, production aspects, downstream processing, salient biochemical properties, industrial applications, enzyme engineering and some recent research developments.

/pdf/alpha-amylases-from-microbial-sources-an-overview-on-recent-1ythf7ugsc.pdf

Alpha-amylases from microbial sources - An overview on recent developments

Alkaline proteases and thermostable α-amylase co-produced by Bacillus licheniformis NH1: Characterization and potential application as detergent additive

The conditions prevailing in the industrial applications in which enzymes are used are rather extreme, especially with respect to temperature and pH. Therefore, there is a continuing demand to improve the stability of enzymes and to meet the requirements set by specific applications. In this respect, thermostable enzymes have been proposed to be industrially relevant. In this review, α-amylase, a well-established representative of thermostable enzymes, providing an attractive model for the investigation of the structural basis of thermostability of proteins, has been discussed.

Unaldi Nisa

Papers

Enzymatic properties of a novel thermostable, thermophilic, alkaline and chelator resistant amylase from an alkaliphilic Bacillus sp. isolate ANT-6