Characterization of Collagenolytic/Proteolytic Marine Enzymes

Abstract

Blue Biotechnology an exponential growth research/applicative area found its success especially in biomedical applications.There are many example of biotechnology applications of enzyme extracted from marin organism. Molecules having biological activity, antibiotics, anti-tumor molecules, inhibitors of inflammation and in other processes were found and isolated in different marine species. Our interest is focalized on proteolityc enzymes, prevalently in the direction of their stability and opportunity to be used at low temperature. Numerous tons of fish are harvested each year, including viscera, is considered as waste during aquatic product processing. These, by products of the seafood industry, are protein-rich but are discarded without any attempt at recovery (Gildberg et al., 2002). High activity of fish enzymes at low temperatures is desirable for industrial applications, especially in certain food processing operations that require low temperatures. Furthermore, the relatively low thermal stability often observed in fish enzymes, may also be beneficial in such applications as the enzymes remained can be inactivated more readily, with less heat treatment. We are interested to investigate the marine enzyme extracted by tissues. Moreover with the new molecular biology technology we will clone single gene and to provide marine organism enzymes by in vitro synthesis systems both in eukaryotic and prokaryotic system. We have partially characterized/purified marine enzymes extracted form hepatopancreas of Eriphia verrucosa and Palimurus elephas. Our preliminary results had shown the presence of several collagenolytic, proteolytic, caseinolytic activities in extracts obtained from the marine organisms; having potentiality applications in industrial/biomedical applications.