Cold-Active Proteins and Enzymes

Dear Colleagues,

Cold-active proteins are characterized by a high catalytic activity and rapid inactivation as low as 30°C. Since the unique feature of cold-active proteins has drawn significant interest from academia and industry over the last few decades, the understanding of cold-active proteins has been ever-increasing. However, the mechanism of the cold adaptation is still not fully illustrated. Cold-adapted organisms or psychrophiles thriving at near- or sub-zero temperatures are repository of cold-active proteins. Hence, worldwide attempts have been made recently to dig out novel cold-active proteins from the Earth's cryobiosphere, which occupies about 80% of our ecosystem. Cold-active proteins, such as proteases and lipases, also have a more significant biotechnological potential compared to their thermophilic counterparts. To utilize their advantages, currently, studies to improve production yield, substrate specificity, and thermostability using fermentation, expression systems including chaperones, site-directed mutagens, molecular dynamics simulation, and structural studies at atomic level are actively ongoing.

This Special Issue, "Cold-active Proteins and Enzymes", of Applied Sciences will cover but is not limited to reviews and recent results regarding the isolation, characterization, engineering, optimization of fermentation of proteases and lipases, structure determination, and applications.

Prof. Dr. Hak Jun Kim
Guest Editor

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