Application of microbial enzymes in industries and medicine

Abstract

Biomolecules that accelerate or enhanced the rate of chemical reactions are known as enzymes. These enzymes are required for breakdown as well as syntheses reactions by living organisms. Enzymes just like chemical catalyst increases the rate of reaction by lowering the activation energy (Ea), thus, products are formed at a faster rate likewise the reaction reaching its equilibrium more rapidly. The importance of enzymes cannot be over emphasized. There has been a drastic increase in the global production of enzyme with over 53,000 tons produced per year, most of which (75%) are hydrolytic causing the breakdown of linkages in polypeptides, lipids and polysaccharides. These enzymes (i.e. lipase, peptidase, amylase) have profound applications in various industries such as food, chemical, agriculture, leather, textile, cosmetics, medicine among others, which function differently from biotransformation of raw materials to use as therapeutic agents. Enzymes can be obtained from varying sources (i.e. plants, animals and microorganisms), however, microorganisms are the most preferred choice for enzyme production. Over the past decades, microbial production of enzymes for industrial purposes and use in medicine has proven to be of high industrial value; since they are stable, efficient, cost effective and can be genetically upregulated for high yield production. Microorganisms from extreme environments (i.e. polar regions, volcanoes) are however, yet to be explored fully for enzyme production. As such advanced techniques involving genomics and metagenomics together with some classical techniques can be used to isolate and screen microorganisms from such environment with potentials to produces industrially important enzymes.