Strategies for Stabilization and Activation of Biocatalysts inOrganic Solvents
2013
One of the major barriers to the use of enzymes in industrial
biotechnology is their insufficient stability under processing
conditions. The use of organic solvent systems instead of
aqueous media for enzymatic reactions offers numerous
advantages, such as increased solubility of hydrophobic
substrates or suppression of water-dependent side reactions.
For example, reverse hydrolysis reactions that form esters from
acids and alcohols can become thermodynamically favourable in
organic solution. However, organic solvents often inactivate
enzymes. Industry and academia have devoted considerable effort
into developing effective strategies to enhance the lifetime of
enzymes in the presence of organic solvents. The strategies can
be grouped into three main categories: (i) isolation of novel
enzymes functioning under extreme conditions, (ii) modification
of enzyme structures to increase their resistance towards
non-conventional media, and (iii) modification of the solvent
environment to decrease its denaturing effect on enzymes. Here,
we discuss successful examples representing each of these
categories and summarize their advantages and disadvantages.
Finally, we highlight some potential future research directions
in the field, such as investigation of novel nanomaterials for
immobilization, wider application of computational tools for
semi-rational prediction of stabilizing mutations,
knowledge-driven modification of key structural elements
learned from successfully engineered proteins or replacement of
volatile organic solvents by ionic liquids and deep eutectic
solvents.
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