Chinese scientists find novel proteases that can be used for gelatin preparation

Gelatin is a collagen hydrolysate, widely used in medicine, food, textile, chemical, electronics, paper, printing and other more than 30 industries, chemical preparation has always been the traditional process of gelatin production. In recent years, with the progress in the research of various enzymes and the innovation of green technology, the enzymatic preparation of gelatin has become a new direction explored by researchers.

Recently, Song Wei, a researcher at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the research team to discover a novel protease that can be used for the preparation of gelatin by sequencing the metagenomics of soil samples, and based on this enzyme, the preparation of gelatin by protease method. Optimized.

The preparation of gelatin by the new protease method is of great significance for resource utilization and environmental maintenance. At the same time, it has good compatibility with existing bone processing and gelatin extraction equipment. In addition, in terms of production, there is no need to add additional unique process equipment, and the traditional process plants can be quickly converted to use enzymatic processes that facilitate the expansion of production scale.

Process needs to be continuously optimized

Due to objective reasons, China's traditional bone gelatin manufacturing industry is mostly concentrated in areas with abundant bone resources, such as Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Gansu. At the same time, as traditional bone gelatin preparation processes go through many steps such as pickling, water washing, liming, and neutralization, the demand for fresh water is enormous, and the freshwater resources in these areas are very scarce. The limitations of regional resources and traditional techniques have limited the development of the gelatin industry and put forward urgent requirements for the innovation of the gelatin process. In the 1980s, enzymatic preparation of gelatin appeared. Enzymatic preparation of gelatin mainly used biological enzymes to act on the bones or skins of animals and degrade collagen macromolecules to produce gelatin.

According to Song Song, preparation of bone gelatin by enzymatic method can eliminate many steps of acid-alkali water washing, simplifying the one-step reaction with acid and enzyme, shortening the process flow, and reducing freshwater consumption by more than 90% while saving A lot of energy and acid-base reagents. “Because it can shorten the production cycle, reduce environmental pollution, facilitate automation and refine the quality of gelatin, it is the development trend of gelatin preparation technology.” Researcher of the Genetic Engineering and Microbial Applied Technology Research Group, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Ming added.

However, enzymatic preparation of gelatin still has some deficiencies. First, proteases used for enzymatic hydrolysis extract automatic plants (eg, animal organs, papaya, pineapple, etc.), and there are problems of contamination and energy consumption in the preparation process. Second, the stability of animal and plant-derived protease products needs to be improved, and the enzyme activity is low. Thirdly, the protease activity is easily affected by the hydrolyzate and it easily loses its activity. In addition, enzymatic preparation of gelatin still has poor specificity of the formed collagen hydrolysate, which affects the quality of the gelatin product; the artificial adjustment of the pH value and the like are necessary during the gelatin preparation process, which limits the development of enzymatic preparation of the gelatin process.

New protease helps green process

Under the above background, the research team of the genetic engineering and microbiological application technology of the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences turned its attention to the study of new enzymes in gelatin enzymatic preparation. Song Song believes that the above-mentioned deficiency of enzymatic preparation of gelatin is caused by the limitations of the protease itself, but currently there are no high-temperature proteins dedicated to gelatin preparation on the domestic and foreign markets. Therefore, Song Xi's research team extracted relevant genes from living microorganisms in the extreme soil environment, and then made specific molecular modifications and exogenous expression of the obtained high-temperature protease, resulting in a large number of industrial proteases. Subsequently, they conducted screening studies from the new proteases obtained, and conducted preliminary tests on some proteolytic enzymes that may be used to prepare gelatin. Through a comprehensive evaluation of the technological process and product indicators, a new type of protease with superior enzyme activity for the preparation of gelatin was found.


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