Ecological Interplays in Microbial Enzymology

Abstract

Enzymes are biocatalysts that potentiate the rate of substrates conversation into products. They are composed of amino acids with one or more polypeptide moiety. Microbial enzymes are the various enzymes of microorganisms’ source, which have wide scope of applications in medicine and industries, including the degradation of persistent environmental wastes. Persistent environmental pollutants have become a global environmental and health concerns. Owing to the rapid technological advancement and development in industry, large quantities of persistent environmental pollutants are being let out into the ecosystem posing serious threat to living organisms thereby deteriorating the environment. Several microbial enzymes are widely used in the decomposition of recalcitrant organic and inorganic wastes. Oxidoreductase and hydrolase constitute the major class of microbial enzymes utilized in biodegradation of environmental pollutants, oxygenases, laccases and peroxidases are the superfamilies of the oxidoreductase class while lipases, cellulases and proteases constitute the superfamilies of the hydrolytic enzymes widely employed for bioremediation. Bioremediation involves the use of enzymes of microbial origin or the whole-cell in the break down or transformation of environmental pollutants into less toxic or nontoxic products. Polymeric compounds such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, poly vinyl chloride, polyurethane and polyethylene terephthalate have been degraded using microbial enzymes. The biodegradation process is however often impeded due to incapability of microbial enzymes to hydrolyze the functional groups present.