Shamsher S. Kanwar

Organic solvent tolerant lipases and applications.

Lipases are a group of enzymes naturally endowed with the property of performing reactions in aqueous as well as organic solvents. The esterification reactions using lipase(s) could be performed in water-restricted organic media as organic solvent(s) not only improve(s) the solubility of substrate and reactant in reaction mixture but also permit(s) the reaction in the reverse direction, and often it is easy to recover the product in organic phase in two-phase equilibrium systems. The use of organic solvent tolerant lipase in organic media has exhibited many advantages: increased activity and stability, regiospecificity and stereoselectivity, higher solubility of substrate, ease of products recovery, and ability to shift the reaction equilibrium toward synthetic direction. Therefore the search for organic solvent tolerant enzymes has been an extensive area of research. A variety of fatty acid esters are now being produced commercially using immobilized lipase in nonaqueous solvents. This review describes the organic tolerance and industrial application of lipases. The main emphasis is to study the nature of organic solvent tolerant lipases. Also, the potential industrial applications that make lipases the biocatalysts of choice for the present and future have been presented.

Lipase catalysis in organic solvents: advantages and applications

Lipases are industrial biocatalysts, which are involved in several novel reactions, occurring in aqueous medium as well as non-aqueous medium. Furthermore, they are well-known for their remarkable ability to carry out a wide variety of chemo-, regio- and enantio-selective transformations. Lipases have been gained attention worldwide by organic chemists due to their general ease of handling, broad substrate tolerance, high stability towards temperatures and solvents and convenient commercial availability. Most of the synthetic reactions on industrial scale are carried out in organic solvents because of the easy solubility of non-polar compounds. The effect of organic system on their stability and activity may determine the biocatalysis pace. Because of worldwide use of lipases, there is a need to understand the mechanisms behind the lipase-catalyzed reactions in organic solvents. The unique interfacial activation of lipases has always fascinated enzymologists and recently, biophysicists and crystallographers have made progress in understanding the structure-function relationships of these enzymes. The present review describes the advantages of lipase-catalyzed reactions in organic solvents and various effects of organic solvents on their activity.

Lipopeptides as the Antifungal and Antibacterial Agents: Applications in Food Safety and Therapeutics

A lot of crops are destroyed by the phytopathogens such as fungi, bacteria, and yeast leading to economic losses to the farmers. Members of the Bacillus genus are considered as the factories for the production of biologically active molecules that are potential inhibitors of growth of phytopathogens. Plant diseases constitute an emerging threat to global food security. Many of the currently available antimicrobial agents for agriculture are highly toxic and nonbiodegradable and thus cause extended environmental pollution. Moreover, an increasing number of phytopathogens have developed resistance to antimicrobial agents. The lipopeptides have been tried as potent versatile weapons to deal with a variety of phytopathogens. All the three families of Bacillus lipopeptides, namely, Surfactins, Iturins and Fengycins, have been explored for their antagonistic activities towards a wide range of phytopathogens including bacteria, fungi, and oomycetes. Iturin and Fengycin have antifungal activities, while Surfactin has broad range of potent antibacterial activities and this has also been used as larvicidal agent. Interestingly, lipopeptides being the molecules of biological origin are environmentally acceptable.

The single functional blast resistance gene Pi54 activates a complex defence mechanism in rice

The Pi54 gene (Pi-k(h)) confers a high degree of resistance to diverse strains of the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In order to understand the genome-wide co-expression of genes in the transgenic rice plant Taipei 309 (TP) containing the Pi54 gene, microarray analysis was performed at 72 h post-inoculation of the M. oryzae strain PLP-1. A total of 1154 differentially expressing genes were identified in TP-Pi54 plants. Of these, 587 were up-regulated, whereas 567 genes were found to be down-regulated. 107 genes were found that were exclusively up-regulated and 58 genes that were down- regulated in the case of TP-Pi54. Various defence response genes, such as callose, laccase, PAL, and peroxidase, and genes related to transcription factors like NAC6, Dof zinc finger, MAD box, bZIP, and WRKY were found to be up-regulated in the transgenic line. The enzymatic activities of six plant defence response enzymes, such as peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase, β-glucosidase, β-1,3-glucanase, and chitinase, were found to be significantly high in TP-Pi54 at different stages of inoculation by M. oryzae. The total phenol content also increased significantly in resistant transgenic plants after pathogen inoculation. This study suggests the activation of defence response and transcription factor-related genes and a higher expression of key enzymes involved in the defence response pathway in the rice line TP-Pi54, thus leading to incompatible host-pathogen interaction.

Synthesis of ethyl ferulate in organic medium using celite-immobilized lipase

In the present work we have evaluated synthesis of ethyl ferulate by the esterification reaction of ferulic acid and ethanol catalyzed by a commercial lipase (Steapsin) immobilized onto celite-545 in a short period of 6h in DMSO. The immobilized lipase was treated with cross-linking agent glutaraldehyde (1%; v/v). The optimum synthesis of ethyl ferulate was recorded at 45°C, pH 8.5 and 1:1 ratio of ethanol and ferulic acid. Co(2+), Ba(2+)and Pb(2+) ions enhanced the synthesis of ethyl ferulate Hg(2+), Cd(3+)and NH(4+) ions had mild inhibitory effect. The celite-bound lipase produced 68 mM of ethyl ferulate under optimized reaction conditions.

Comparative Analysis of Zinc Finger Proteins Involved in Plant Disease Resistance

A meta-analysis was performed to understand the role of zinc finger domains in proteins of resistance (R) genes cloned from different crops. We analyzed protein sequences of seventy R genes of various crops in which twenty six proteins were found to have zinc finger domains along with nucleotide binding sites - leucine rice repeats (NBS-LRR) domains. We identified thirty four zinc finger domains in the R proteins of nine crops and were grouped into 19 types of zinc fingers. The size of individual zinc finger domain within the R genes varied from 11 to 84 amino acids, whereas the size of proteins containing these domains varied from 263 to 1305 amino acids. The biophysical analysis revealed that molecular weight of Pi54 zinc finger was lowest whereas the highest one was found in rice Pib zinc finger named as Transposes Transcription Factor (TTF). The instability (R2 = 0.95) and the aliphatic (R2 = 0.94) indices profile of zinc finger domains follows the polynomial distribution pattern. The pairwise identity analysis showed that the Lin11, Isl-1 & Mec-3 (LIM) zinc finger domain of rice blast resistance protein pi21 have 12.3% similarity with the nuclear transcription factor, X-box binding-like 1 (NFX) type zinc finger domain of Pi54 protein. For the first time, we reported that Pi54 (Pi-kh-Tetep), a rice blast resistance (R) protein have a small zinc finger domain of NFX type located on the C-terminal in between NBS and LRR domains of the R-protein. Compositional analysis depicted by the helical wheel diagram revealed the presence of a hydrophobic region within this domain which might help in exposing the LRR region for a possible R-Avr interaction. This domain is unique among all other cloned plant disease resistance genes and might play an important role in broad-spectrum nature of rice blast resistance gene Pi54.

Lead Phytochemicals for Anticancer Drug Development

Cancer is a serious concern at present. A large number of patients die each year due to cancer illnesses in spite of several interventions available. Development of an effective and side effects lacking anticancer therapy is the trending research direction in healthcare pharmacy. Chemical entities present in plants proved to be very potential in this regard. Bioactive phytochemicals are preferential as they pretend differentially on cancer cells only, without altering normal cells. Carcinogenesis is a complex process and includes multiple signaling events. Phytochemicals are pleiotropic in their function and target these events in multiple manners; hence they are most suitable candidate for anticancer drug development. Efforts are in progress to develop lead candidates from phytochemicals those can block or retard the growth of cancer without any side effect. Several phytochemicals manifest anticancer function in vitro and in vivo. This article deals with these lead phytomolecules with their action mechanisms on nuclear and cellular factors involved in carcinogenesis. Additionally, druggability parameters and clinical development of anticancer phytomolecules have also been discussed.

Improved production of L-asparaginase by Bacillus brevis cultivated in the presence of oxygen-vectors.

The efficiency of three oxygen-vectors liquid paraffin, silicone oil and n-dodecane in the production of L-asparaginase by Bacillus brevis was evaluated at 4% (v/v) concentration. All of the three oxygen-vectors were found to exhibit a stimulatory effect on L-asparaginase activity. Liquid paraffin at 6% (v/v) resulted in 34% increase in the L-asparaginase activity accompanied by a 48% increase in the production of cell mass at a 10 L scale. This improvement in L-asparaginase activity and cell mass production in the presence of liquid paraffin can be related to the fact that liquid paraffin was capable of maintaining dissolved O2 concentration above 28% through out the course of the fermentation. Maintenance of the dissolved O2 concentration above 28% could be viewed in terms of an adequate oxygen supply to the rapidly dividing cells of the bacterium, which in turn resulted in enhancement in cell mass production and l-asparaginase activity.

Synthesis of Isopropyl Ferulate Using Silica-Immobilized Lipase in an Organic Medium

Immobilization of lipases has proved to be a useful technique for improving an enzymes activity in organic solvents. In the present study, the performance of a silica-immobilized lipase was evaluated for the synthesis of isopropyl ferulate in DMSO. The biocatalyst was cross-linked onto the matrix with 1% glutaraldehyde. The effects of various parameters, molar ratio of ferulic acid to isopropyl alcohol (25 mM : 100 mM), concentration of biocatalyst (2.5–20 mg/mL), molecular sieves (25–250 mg/mL), and various salt ions, were studied consecutively as a function of percent esterification. Immobilized lipase at 25 mg/mL showed maximum esterification (~84%) of ferulic acid and isopropanol at a molar ratio of 25 mM : 100 mM, respectively, in DMSO at 45°C in 3 h under shaking (150 rpm). To overcome the inhibitory effect of water (a byproduct) if any, in the reaction mixture, molecular sieves (3 Å × 1.5 mm; 100 mg/mL) were added to the reaction mixture to promote the forward reaction. Salt ions like Ca2+, Cd2+, and Fe2+ enhanced the activity of immobilized biocatalyst while a few ions like Co2+, Zn2+, Mg2+, Mn2+, Al3+, and Na+ had mild inhibitory effect. Approximately, one third of total decrease in the esterification efficacy was observed after the 5th repetitive cycle of esterification.

Enzymatic Synthesis of Isopropyl Acetate by Immobilized Bacillus cereus Lipase in Organic Medium.

Selective production of fragrance fatty acid ester from isopropanol and acetic acid has been achieved using silica-immobilized lipase of Bacillus cereus MTCC 8372. A purified thermoalkalophilic extracellular lipase was immobilized by adsorption onto the silica. The effects of various parameters like molar ratio of substrates (isopropanol and acetic acid; 25 to 100 mM), concentration of biocatalyst (25–125 mg/mL), reaction time, reaction temperature, organic solvents, molecular sieves, and initial water activity were studied for optimal ester synthesis. Under optimized conditions, 66.0 mM of isopropyl acetate was produced when isopropanol and acetic acid were used at 100 mM: 75 mM in 9 h at 55°C in n-heptane under continuous shaking (160 rpm) using bound lipase (25 mg). Addition of molecular sieves (3 Å × 1.5 mm) resulted in a marked increase in ester synthesis (73.0 mM). Ester synthesis was enhanced by water activity associated with pre-equilibrated saturated salt solution of LiCl. The immobilized lipase retained more than 50% of its activity after the 6th cycle of reuse.