Research Projects

Enzymes are biocatalysts that are attracting the attention of researchers due to their widespread usage. Enzymes have been vastly utilized in industrial sector as an alternative to their chemical counterparts (Morais et al., 2021). They provide sustainable tools to mitigate environment pollution by breaking down complex hazardous substances to less toxic monomers. Chemical deinking and pretreatment methods leads to soil and water toxicity. Enzymatic biocatalysts help in reduction of this toxicity. They combine the perspective of green economy and sustainable production of industries. These enzymes are widely utilized in biorefineries, leather, paper and pulp, dying, and textile industries (Mariana et al., 2021). The cellulase, lipase, and protease production from microorganisms is a precious store and biotechnological tools can be utilized for their exploration. But the expensive and industrially inefficient enzymes pose a bigger problem for their large scale application in industries (Xu et al., 2018). The increased focus on biofuel production and recycling of paper through enzymatic deinking has led to the development of proficient enzymes for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. Aspergillus species and Thermomyces lanuginosus are efficient thermostable cellulase producers (Dixit et al., 2023). The synergistic action of enzymes is crucial for different industrial bioprocesses. Also, the uses of fungi as industrial hosts require extensive analysis of their gene expression and protein secretion (Mondal et al., 2022). The production of native enzymes from lignocellulosic feedstocks is cost-effective but the reduced efficiency of these enzymes limits their utilization in industry. Therefore, the engineering of the enzymes is required to increase their activity and industrial applications. The enzymes like endoglucanase, lipase and amylase obtained from Thermomyces lanuginosus, Volvariella volvaceae, Aspergillus sp. are thermophilic in nature and suitable for industrial application. Various studies have shown their utilization in waste paper recycling viz. cellulase, xylanase and lipase for biobleaching and deinking of pulp during paper recycling, xylanase and laccase during biofuel production (Kumar et al., 2019). The production of chimeric enzymes provides cost-effective and efficient enzymes for industrial applications. Previously, Lip-cut chimeric enzymes have been utilized in deinking of paper. The proper construction of chimeric enzymes could enhance the synergistic action of enzymes due to substrate specificities and catalysis pattern (Liu et al., 2017). But the individual use of enzymes in industries leads to only minor effects in overall production strategy leading to their limited use in industries. Therefore, there is requirement of generation of multienzyme complex/chimera for their utilization in related industries to mitigate the pollutants production and development of zero waste emission approach.