Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
C
HAPTER
10
Fungal Genes and their
Respective Enzymes in
Industrial Food, Bio-based
and Pharma Applications
Marco van den Berg,* Margot Schooneveld,
Monica Vlasie, Andre de Roos
and Drew Smith
Abstract
Enzymes are an important part of industrial processing due to favorable catalytic
properties as reactivity, specifi city and selectivity. Sources of enzymes for indus-
trial applications are unlimited, ranging from the well-known bacterial acylases
used for penicillin synthesis to the chysmosin, isolated from calf stomach rennet,
applied in cheese production. Here, the scope of the chapter is limited to fungal
enzymes. Still then, hundreds of different fungal enzymes (including the 'big
players' as proteases and cellulases) are being used in biotechnological processes.
The versatility fungi in nature stimulated the evolution of such a diverse range of
enzymatic capabilities, many of which are secreted, thereby facilitating the harvest-
ing and further purifi cation. Moreover, the relative ease of fungi as production
systems, the high titers and tools like protein engineering boosted the wide-spread
screening and use of these enzymatic catalysts. In this chapter, we will focus on
the biocatalytic use of fungal enzymes in a number of applications like industrial
food processing, production of biofuels, phamaceutical production and the use
as pharmaceutical product itself. Several classes of enzymes in relation to their
industrial applications will be discussed.
