Organic solvent-tolerant enzymes

The use of organic solvents as reaction media for enzymatic reactions provides numerous industrially attractive advantages compared to traditional aqueous reaction systems. Despite the advantages, native enzymes almost universally exhibit low activities and/or stabilities in the presence of organic solvents. This inactivation of the enzymes by organic solvents results in significant limitation of the enzymatic reaction process. Numerous attempts have been made to improve enzyme activity and stability in the presence of organic solvents using methods based on protein engineering and chemical or physical modification. Most enzymes used in these studies did not originally exhibit high activity and stability in the presence of organic solvents because they were not screened as organic solvent-tolerant enzymes. Recently, various attempts have been made to screen enzymes that naturally possess organic solvent-tolerance form various microorganisms including organic solvent-tolerant bacteria, thermophiles, halophiles and mesophiles. These organic solvent-tolerant enzymes are expected to have potential for applications in industrial chemical processes.