Ashish Kumar

By Nagendra Kumar Chandrawanshi, Deepali Koreti, Anjali Kosre and Ashish Kumar

Proteolytic enzymes are well known for catalyzing hydrolytic reactions. These enzymes fall under the group of large and complex, also known as proteases. Proteolytic enzymes mainly derived from microbial origin are favored because they have a short generation time, ease of genetic manipulation of microorganisms, and the availability of diverse species in nature. Macro fungi are significant and played an excellent role in degrading lignocellulosic compounds, such as mushrooms. They efficiently degrade cellulose and produce extracellular enzymes such as xylanases, cellulases, and ligninolytic enzymes. Furthermore, proteases play a significant role in fungi physiology, such as metalloproteinase, subtilases, aspartate, etc. Many worldwide researchers have reported the mycelial secretion of proteases from basidiomycetes. Thus, many protease extraction methods have been developed from the various categories of mushroom species, i.e., Pleurotusostreatus, Phanerochaetechrysosporium, Schizophyllum commune, Chondrostereumpurpureum, and Hypsizygusmarmoreus, etc. Furthermore, there is a high demand in the industry for specific proteolytic enzymatic activity. Numerous species of mushrooms have not been explored to date for the optimization and production of enzymes. Therefore, further detailed studies are required to expose the production mechanisms and application of proficient proteolytic enzymes from mushrooms. The present chapter will deliberately deal with proteolytic enzymes downstream processing and their various industrial applications.

Part of the book: Hydrolases