Abstract

Microbial enzymes are widely used in different industries mainly because of vast availability of sources. Microbial enzymes could be genetically modified and are considered as economical in comparison to plant and animal enzymes. Production of microbial enzymes by application of fermentation procedures involves microbial propagation to get desired product. The process of fermentation is classified based on specific parameters. Microbial enzymes exhibit wide variety of applications in different industries like food, wine, dairy, baking, milling, beverages, and cereals. There are different techniques employed to produce microbial enzymes using downstream processing methods that are aimed at enzyme purification and recovery. The improvement in concentration, purity and percentage of recovery of enzymes can be achieved based on standard principles which are microbial sources, improvement of strain and application of membrane augmented downstream processing method to improve specific activity of enzyme. The article reviews on principles include microbial sources, methods of strain improvement and modern techniques associated with improvement of enzyme activity and recovery process. The application of microbial enzymes in various industries and their importance in biotechnology is highlighted.

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