Search

Enzymes have transformed since its advent as far as its temperature dependency is concerned, predominantly driven by environmental and climatic necessity. Early thermophilic enzymes eliminated the chemical pollution, and later, mesophilic enzymes reduced the energy consumption. The third wave of transformation is in genesis, which is psychrophilic enzymes, but there is no clear understanding of what profane impact would it make. Energy-saving has been largely claimed, but when assessed in a complete lifecycle, it is disputable. The chapter predicts that cold-active enzymes will be instrumental in addressing the rising trend of ultra-health consciousness in the urban populace. It postulates three unique categories of applications: (a) nonthermal processing, (b) ambient temperature catalysis, and (c) utilization of cold-chain, in which psychrophilic enzymes will make a difference and cement its place in industrial bio-catalysis. The chapter also reviews some recent advances in the molecular mechanism of psychrophilic enzymes.

The productivity of cold-active polygalacturonase (PGase) in a newly identified marine psychrophile, Thalassospira frigidphilosprofundus S3BA12, was increased multifold by employing high-cell-density (HCD) culturing in a simulation-assisted, custom-designed single-stage-continuous immobilized reactor. The reactor was made “halophilic culturing” ready by using surface altered polyurethane foam (PUF) as a matrix, and it was uniquely packed with layers of “spacers” to increase robustness towards high salinity, prevent salt deposition and dissociation of cells. The basic limitation of low growth of a marine organism was overcome in this study, where HCD resulted in a 4-fold increase of cell mass from 0.84 dcw g/L in submerged culture to 3.22 g/L, which commensurately increased the PGase titre from 21.0 U/ml to 85.25 U/ml. The culture was sustained for 108 h, continuously producing PGase at a rate of 7.87 U/ml hr−1. This could be the highest reported cold-active PGase by any psychrophilic organism reported to date. A mechanistic modelling approach was used to develop a simulation of the process in ChemCAD 5.0, which can be used as a basis for scale-up studies. This study proved statistically that PGase titre is significantly dependent on cell mass using Anderson-Darlington normality tests and established a correlation between PGase and other pectinase subtypes using Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis.

In an effort to become a global manufacturing giant, India has launched an ambitious “Make in India” campaign. In this article, we discussed the initiatives launched by Indian Government to create a sustainable economy, as well as opportunities for national and international start-up organisations to reinforce "Make in India" campaign. For the first time, we present an in-depth discussion of Green India policies and manufacturing sector challenges. The aim is to improve the manufacturing output of India and reduce dependence on foreign imports for which campaigns like “Atmanirbhar Bharat” which translates into “Self-Reliant-Green” India has also been started. Department of Science & Technology play a key role in establishing various programs such as infrastructure development, technological support, and green manufacturing programs all of which help to translate “discovery research” into “commercially viable technologies”. It focuses specifically on “Startups”, MSME's, young scientists, R&D labs and traditional manufacturing units that have little access to financial support but are an integral part of the Indian manufacturing ambit. The programs are interconnected and designed to function in a way that every support could be provided to the indigenous manufacturing, innovation and implementation of climate-resilient green growth strategies.

Pectinase has been an integral part of commercial food processing, where it is used for degradation of pectin and facilitates different processing steps such as liquefaction, clarification and juice extraction. The industry currently uses pectinases from mesophilic or thermophilic microorganisms which are well established, but recently, there has been is a new trend in the food industry to adopt low-temperature processing. This trend is due to the potential economic and environmental advantages which the industry envisages. In order to achieve this change, an alternative for the existing pectinases, which are mostly mesophilic and temperature-dependent, must be identified, which can function efficiently at low temperatures. Psychrophilic pectinases derived from cold-adapted microorganisms, are known to function at low to freezing temperatures and may be an alternative to address the problem. Psychrophilic pectinases can be obtained from the vast microflora inhabiting various cold regions on earth such as oceans, Polar Regions, snow-covered mountains, and glaciers. This article is intended to study the advantages of cold active pectinases, its sources, and the current state of the research.

The present study deals with the production of cold active polygalacturonase (PGase) by submerged fermentation usingThalassospira frigidphilosprofundus, a novel species isolated from deep waters of Bay of Bengal. Nonlinear models were applied to optimize the medium components for enhanced production of PGase. Taguchi orthogonal array design was adopted to evaluate the factors influencing the yield of PGase, followed by the central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) to identify the optimum concentrations of the key factors responsible for PGase production. Data obtained from the above mentioned statistical experimental design was used for final optimization study by linking the artificial neural network and genetic algorithm (ANN-GA). Using ANN-GA hybrid model, the maximum PGase activity (32.54 U/mL) was achieved at the optimized concentrations of medium components. In a comparison between the optimal output of RSM and ANN-GA hybrid, the latter favored the production of PGase. In addition, the study also focused on the determination of factors responsible for pectin hydrolysis by crude pectinase extracted fromT. frigidphilosprofundusthrough the central composite design. Results indicated 80% degradation of pectin in banana fiber at 20°C in 120 min, suggesting the scope of cold active PGase usage in the treatment of raw banana fibers.