Marine Enzymes - Elucidation of their distinct properties and their exploitation for food preservation.

该提案是向NSERC申请资金，以继续和扩展我们的研究计划，其总体目标集中在研究新型海洋酶作为食品加工和保存生物技术工具的潜在用途。这是基于食品和非食品用途对酶的需求，如食品质地改良、饮料生产、油提取、调味剂、营养食品、药品、洗涤剂、纺织品、生物燃料等。全球酶市场正以每年约6%的速度增长，预计到2015年将产生约44亿美元。其中，食品级酶预计占约30%（http：//www.bccresearch.com/report/enzymes-industrial-applications-bio030f.html）。因此，酶工业正在积极寻求新的和动态的酶，以及成本有效地生产它们的创新方法。在这种情况下，海洋生态系统及其多样和独特的栖息地，拥有无数的脊椎动物，无脊椎动物和其他物种，代表了适合在广泛条件下应用的独特酶的优秀池。 我们研究计划下一阶段的具体目标是研究墨鱼，鱿鱼和刀鱼的消化酶，并在细菌中以高产率生产它们，用于恢复和固定成稳定和活性形式。由此产生的酶也将被研究其从食品副产品生产生物活性蛋白水解物和生物活性肽的功效。这些生物活性物质正在全球范围内积极寻求，以利用其有益作用，如抗氧化剂，抗菌和酶抑制特性，以减少对使用化学化合物作为食品加工助剂的依赖。全球也有兴趣获得可生物降解的薄膜，作为食品包装用合成塑料的替代品。该项目还将从虾壳和酒糟干谷物中制备可生物降解的薄膜，与生物活性提取物结合，形成新型生物活性薄膜，该薄膜将联合收割机的保存和包装功能结合起来。

This proposal is a request to NSERC for funds to continue and extend our research program with its overall objective focused on investigating novel marine enzymes for potential uses as biotechnological tools for food processing and preservation. This is based on the need for enzymes for both food and non-food uses, such as food texture modification, production of beverages, oil extraction, flavors, dietetic foods, pharmaceuticals, detergents, textiles, biofuels, etc. The global market for enzymes is growing at a rate of about 6%/yr, and is predicted to generate about US$4.4bn by the year 2015. Of this amount, food grade enzymes are forecasted to constitute about 30% (http://www.bccresearch.com/report/enzymes-industrial-applications-bio030f.html). Thus, the enzyme industry is actively seeking novel and dynamic enzymes, and innovative methods to produce them cost-effectively. In this context, the marine ecosystem with its diverse and unique habitats that harbor a myriad of vertebrate, invertebrate and other species represents an excellent pool of unique enzymes that are suitable for applications under a wide range of conditions. The specific objectives of this next phase of our research program are to study digestive enzymes from cuttlefish, squid and cunner fish, and to produce them in high yields in bacteria, for recovery and immobilization into stable and active forms. The enzymes thus produced, will also be investigated for their efficacy to produce bioactive protein hydrolysates and bioactive peptides from food byproducts. These bioactives are being actively sought globally to exploit their beneficial effects such as antioxidant, antimicrobial and enzyme inhibitory properties, in order to reduce the reliance on the use of chemical compounds as food processing aids. There is also global interest to obtain biodegradable films as alternatives to synthetic plastics for food packaging. This program will also prepare biodegradable films from shrimp shells and distillers dry grains, for integration with the bioactive extracts to form novel bioactive films that combine preservation and packaging functions.