Enzyme Engineering: Old and New Approaches

Enzymes, as biocatalyzers, are proteins that allow that a great number of biological reactions take place at rate much quicker than in its absence. These molecules show high specificity for the recognition of the substances to be transformed and they have evolved during thousands of years to make possible a wide variety of transformations related to all forms of life. In this line, a first and primitive wave of enzyme engineering was developed as a way to use enzymes in industrial processes. One of the first fields was food industry. Microbial and plant enzymes, such hydrolases or pectinases were used in food preparation, such as bread, beer, milk derivatives or juice preparation. Other industries, as detergents, waste treatment in bioremediation or pharmaceutical synthesis have also developed in parallel with the use of enzymes as much specific, efficient and stable as possible [1].