Native and Biotechnologically Engineered Plant Proteases with Industrial Applications

Peptidases, their substrates and inhibitors are of great relevance to biology, medicine and biotechnology. The MEROPS database (http://merops.sanger.ac.uk) aims to fulfil the need for an integrated source of information about these. The database has a hierarchical classification in which homologous sets of peptidases and protein inhibitors are grouped into protein species, which are grouped into families, which are in turn grouped into clans. The classification framework is used for attaching information at each level. An important focus of the database has become distinguishing one peptidase from another through identifying the specificity of the peptidase in terms of where it will cleave substrates and with which inhibitors it will interact. We have collected over 39 000 known cleavage sites in proteins, peptides and synthetic substrates. These allow us to display peptidase specificity and alignments of protein substrates to give an indication of how well a cleavage site is conserved, and thus its probable physiological relevance. While the number of new peptidase families and clans has only grown slowly the number of complete genomes has greatly increased. This has allowed us to add an analysis tool to the relevant species pages to show significant gains and losses of peptidase genes relative to related species.

The use of enzymes in industrial processes can often eliminate the use of high temperatures, organic solvents and extremes of pH, while at the same time offering increased reaction specificity, product purity and reduced environmental impact. The growing use of industrial enzymes is dependent on constant innovation to improve performance and reduce cost. This innovation is driven by a rapidly increasing database of natural enzyme diversity, recombinant DNA and fermentation technologies that allow this diversity to be produced at low cost, and protein modification tools that enable enzymes to be tuned to fit into the industrial marketplace.

Considerable amounts of fish processing byproducts are discarded each year. By developing enzyme technologies for protein recovery and modification, production of a broad spectrum of food ingredients and industrial products may be possible. Hydrolyzed vegetable and milk proteins are widely used food ingredients. There are few hydrolyzed fish protein foods with the exception of East Asian condiments and sauces. This review describes various manufacturing techniques for fish protein hydrolysates using acid, base, endogenous enzymes, and added bacterial or digestive proteases. The chemical and biochemical characteristics of hydrolyzed fish proteins are discussed. In addition, functional properties of fish protein hydrolysates are described, including solubility, water-holding capacity, emulsification, and foam-forming ability. Possible applications of fish protein hydrolysates in food systems are provided, and comparison with other food protein hydrolysates where pertinent.