Bioengineering for Microbial Inulinases: Trends and Applications

Abstract

Inulinase has attracted attention due to their number of applications in various industries viz. pharmaceuticals, food and bioethanol. Enzymes due to their unique properties and enormous power of catalysis at very wide range of temperature are always in demand in industries. There are certain techniques which are employed to improve the productivity of enzymes as well as enhancing their catalytic activity. Modeling of structure of inulinase will provide an overview of the catalytic domain and help in improvising catalytic potential. In the present review we have discussed on the topics of different substrate specificity and statistical optimization methods for the improvement of inulinase production. Recovery of enzyme is a cost effective approach and crucial step in the industrial application of enzyme and can be achieved by different immobilizing techniques. Immobilized inulinases have been widely studied and applied in different bioreactor systems. Kluyveromyces, Aspergillus, Staphylococcus, Xanthomonas, and Pseudomonas are few high level of inulinase producing microorganisms and are commercially employed for production of certain important product. Since inulins are used as prebiotic, it has also great impact in the nutritional biology field. Inulinase in food industries and inulin as probiotic are also discussed.

Keywords: Inulinase; bioengineering; docking; fructooligosaccharides; immobilization; molecular dynamic simulation.