Enzyme kinetics: Industrially important enzymes

Abstract

Biocatalysts play a key role in biotransformation reactions. Enzymes are a versatile biocatalyst present in almost all kinds of organisms to regulate their metabolism and survival. Biocatalysts exhibited high selectivity and specificity toward their substrate under mild conditions over chemical processes that are carried out under very harsh conditions and led to the undesirable side by-products. Microbes or enzymes recovered from them are widely utilized for biotechnological applications, including industrial and biomedical. Enzymes are more beneficial over the whole cells due to their high selectivity and easy to operate in the specific reaction. Therefore, the selection of a key enzyme as biocatalysts is necessary for successful industrial applications. The purification of enzymes also faces major challenges such as to retain high activity and better stability. Primarily, the enzyme properties such as low activity (rate of reaction), narrow physiological conditions (low stability), and kinetic properties such a low affinity toward the substrate, low turnover number, and catalytic efficiency. In this book chapter, the details about industrial biocatalysts properties production of enzymes, and improvement in their kinetic and stability properties through protein engineering and immobilization of enzymes is discussed to improve biotechnological applications for human welfare and environmental benefits. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.