Microbial biocatalysts

A microbial biocatalyst in context of BDS is defined as a microorganism expressing enzymes capable of removing sulfur selectively from organosulfur compounds. The definition of a biocatalyst, in general, also includes use of one or more enzymes, by themselves or in a cellular extract (used either in suspended form or carrier-supported form) for removal of sulfur. Additionally, biocatalyst can be a microbial consortium as well. Aerobic as well as anaerobic pathways for sulfur removal have been reported. The anaerobic routes, however, have been plagued with lack of reproducibility preventing further development. 

Dalboge, H. and Lange, L. (1998) Using molecular techniques to identify new microbial biocatalysts. TIBTECH, 16, 265-272. 

Kell DB, Winson MK, Goodacre R, Woodward AM, Alsberg BK, Jones A, Timmins EM, Rowland JJ (1998) DRASTIC (Diffuse Reflectance Absorbance Spectroscopy Taking In Chemometrics). A novel, rapid, hyperspectral, FT-IR-based approach to screening for biocatalytic activity and metabolite overproduction. In Kieslich K (ed) New Frontiers in Screening for Microbial Biocatalysts. Elsevier Science B. V., The Netherlands, p 61... 

As discussed before, there is a lot of interest in microbial biocatalysts with highly active D-hydantoinase- and D-N-carbamoylase-activity for the direct synthesis of HN02-sensitive D-amino acids used as chiral synthons in the production of pharma-... 

In contrast to what many people still seem to believe, screening must not necessarily be a frustrating and laborious job for dummies. As is demonstrated by many successful examples from academia and industry, screening can be done with very clever strategies and be very exciting. Some very useful indications in this direction can be found in the excellent proceedings of the International Symposium New Frontiers in Screening for Microbial Biocatalysts held in 1996 [27]. 

In the past, a small number of academic groups have greatly contributed to the discovery of synthetically very useful novel microbial biocatalysts, and also to the set-up of quite a number of industrial processes. The most prominent Japanese example is the Laboratory of... 

Tables 6 and 7 clearly demonstrate that very interesting novel microbial biocatalysts with high industrial potential can be found by intelligent screening using selective enrichment and...

We successfully isolated and characterized new microbial enzymes from nature. Now, they have proved to be both scientifically and industrially important. Thus, the enrichment and acclimation culture techniques are two of the most active methods in the screening for microbial biocatalysts. 

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