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Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry (2000) 31, (135–152) (Printed in Great Britain)

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Review

Advances in microbial amylases

Ashok Pandey*¹, Poonam Nigam†, Carlos R. Soccol*, Vanete T. Soccol‡, Dalel Singh¶ and Radjiskumar Mohan*

*Laboratorio de Processos Biotecnologicos, Departamento de Engenharia Quimica, Universidade Federal do Parana (UFPR), CEP 81531-970 Curitiba-PR, Brazil, †School of Applied Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1AS, Northern Ireland, U.K., ‡Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Parana (UFPR), CEP 81531-970 Curitiba-PR, Brazil, and ¶Department of Microbiology, Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar-125 004, India

¹ Present address and address for correspondence: Biotechnology Division, Regional Research Laboratory, Trivandrum-695 019, India.

This review makes a comprehensive survey of microbial amylases, i.e. a-amylase, b-amylase and glucoamylase. Amylases are among the most important enzymes and are of great significance in present-day biotechnology. Although they can be derived from several sources, such as plants, animals and micro-organisms, the enzymes from microbial sources generally meet industrial demands. Microbial amylases could be potentially useful in the pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries if enzymes with suitable properties could be prepared. With the advent of new frontiers in biotechnology, the spectrum of amylase application has widened in many other fields, such as clinical, medicinal and analytical chemistries, as well as their widespread application in starch saccharification and in the textile, food, brewing and distilling industries. In this review, after a brief description of the sources of amylases, we discuss the molecular biology of amylases, describing structures, cloning, sequences, and protoplast fusion and mutagenesis. This is followed by sections on their production and finally the properties of various amylases.

Portland Press Ltd © 2000