What is the reason there is so much research on fungal laccases and only a few industrial suppliers? are they really used in the industry? or they have been replaced by something else? it seems like they satisfy the demand and no improvements are needed... so how do we know what the industry needs?
@ Francisco, I think, as it is general believe that fungal enzymes has been associated with lot of adverse health effects. Moreover, no long term ethical test has been done with the laccases producing/secreting fungi.
It is a given that one does not make supplies where there are no demands. Few companies produce laccases and like you rightly said, their roles might have been replaced/substituted by chemical methods. If you look at the review paper of Couto and Herrera, 2006, on the Industrial and Biotechnological Applications of Laccases, you will observe that their significance and hence demand is even supposed to be on the rise. So, the problem will have to reside in the production hurdles of laccases, most importantly yield and cost-effectiveness. These are the major drivers of sustained productions of microbial metabolites with biotechnological relevance.
Dear Francisco,
undoubtedly, laccases are promising for various biotechnological processes and applications ranging from pulp and paper, food, textile, dye and cosmetics industries to sustainable production of renewable chemicals, materials, fuels, organic
synthesis and bioremediation. However, to be demanded by industry laccases cost should be manifold decreased while their yield and production efficiency need to be significantly improved.
Thank you Maurice, JC and Vladimir! so the focus is to lower the costs in order to prduce a competitive product. This totally make sense. Do you think that improving the efficency of low cost extractions of wasted substrates of mushroom productios would make it?
cheers
Do you mean the mushroom spent substrate? It is a poor growth substrate for the laccase production, although an exploitation of plant raw materials is the best approach. However, this material should provide both good growth of fungal biomass and the enzyme synthesis induction. Main task is to discover over-producer of laccase and establish cultivation condition favoring predominant synthesis of the enzyme.
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