Alkaline Enzymes from Alkaliphiles: Enzymatic Properties, Genetics, and Application to Detergents
Susumu ITO*
Biological Science Laboratories of Kao Corporation, 2606 Akabane, Ichikai, Haga, Tochigi 3321-34, Japan
The cleaning power of detergents seems to have peaked; all detergents contain similar ingredients and are based on the same detergency mechanisms. To improve detergency, modem types of heavy-duty power detergents and automatic dishwasher detergents usually contain one or more enzymes, such as protease, amylase, cellulase, and lipase.
Alkaliphilic Bacillus strains are often good sources of alkaline extracellular enzymes, the properties of which fulfil the essential requirements for enzymes to be used in detergents. We have isolated numbers of alkaliphilic Bacillus that produce such alkaline detergent enzymes, including cellulase (CMCase) (1), protease (2), α- amylase, and amylopullulanase (3), and have succeeded in large-scale industrial production of these enzymes. Here, we present the enzymatic properties, structures, and genetics of the detergent enzymes that we have developed, as well as the cleaning mechanisms of the enzymes in detergents.
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