Advances in protease engineering for laundry detergents

N Biotechnol. 2015 Dec 25;32(6):629-34. doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2014.12.010. Epub 2015 Jan 8.

Abstract

Proteases are essential ingredients in modern laundry detergents. Over the past 30 years, subtilisin proteases employed in the laundry detergent industry have been engineered by directed evolution and rational design to tailor their properties towards industrial demands. This comprehensive review discusses recent success stories in subtilisin protease engineering. Advances in protease engineering for laundry detergents comprise simultaneous improvement of thermal resistance and activity at low temperatures, a rational strategy to modulate pH profiles, and a general hypothesis for how to increase promiscuous activity towards the production of peroxycarboxylic acids as mild bleaching agents. The three protease engineering campaigns presented provide in-depth analysis of protease properties and have identified principles that can be applied to improve or generate enzyme variants for industrial applications beyond laundry detergents.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Detergents / chemical synthesis*
  • Enzyme Activation
  • Enzyme Stability
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Laundering / methods*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Peptide Hydrolases / chemistry*
  • Peptide Hydrolases / genetics*
  • Protein Engineering / methods*
  • Substrate Specificity
  • Subtilisin / chemistry*
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Detergents
  • Peptide Hydrolases
  • Subtilisin