The Use of Biochemistry within Biotechnology

e Use of Biochemistry within

Biotechnology
By Michael Greenwood, M.Sc.
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.

While biochemistry is the study of chemical processes taking place within living
organisms, biotechnology is the ultimate product of these discoveries, allowing
the identified biochemical processes to be exploited for technological purposes,
or better observed and analyzed in situ using biotechnical means.

Biochemistry. Image Credit: PopTika/Shutterstock.com

Biotechnology then includes the application of mechanisms uncovered within

the field of biochemistry for the production of a useful product and the use of
biochemical techniques in combination with physical analysis methods for a
better understanding of biochemistry. For example, when utilizing a
fluorescently tagged molecule in combination with a fluorescence microscope,
allowing researchers to identify the precise target of a drug within a cell.

Biochemistry and biotechnology are therefore intricately linked, with an

understanding of biochemical processes being required before they can be

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applied to technology, and once developed, technology may then subsequently

allow for more biochemical discoveries to be made.

Biochemical technologies
The use of enzymes within the industry is a prominent example of a
biochemical process that can be applied to biotechnology, potentially offering an
environmentally friendly and highly efficient alternative to traditional chemical
synthesis.

The first enzymes were described in the 19th century, and by the mid 20th
century were already being utilized as catalysts for industrial applications such
as the production of glycerol by the fermentation of yeast, or citric acid using
the fungus Aspergillus niger. As researchers began to unravel the mechanisms
behind the observed activity of enzymes a wider range of uses were found, one
prominent example being the discovery of penicillin acylase, an enzyme found
in some bacteria, yeast, and fungi that facilitates the production of several
antibiotic precursors. It was also around this time that researchers began
immobilizing the enzymes onto a solid substrate, allowing them to be recycled
and reused without the high costs involved in the isolation and purification of
large quantities of enzymes.

Advances in DNA technology subsequently allowed proteins of interest to be

harvested in much greater numbers from bacteria or yeast, as the relevant DNA
sequence could now be identified and inserted into a plasmid and highly
expressed. The much wider availability of enzymes produced in this way further
encouraged the adoption of biotechnical synthesis methods throughout the
1970s and 80s, with, for example, recombinant chymosin replacing that
sourced from calf stomachs in the production of cheese.

Other advances in the field of

biotechnology such as the development of
polymerase chain reaction made it Click here to read about
possible to generate large quantities of the role of biotechemistry
in pest control.
DNA, and by purposefully introducing
errors to the copying process protein
mutants could be generated and isolated.
Selection of mutants bearing favorable qualities by humans followed by
repeated error-prone PCR allowed the field of directed evolution to produce

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enzymes with much greater thermal and chemical stability, and when combined
with the recombinant protein technology already developed, massively widened
the useful application of enzymes in industry.

Case study: Lactose

As discussed, enzymes generally have greater specificity, lower energy
thresholds, and better environmental stability than comparable synthetic
chemical catalysts. One potential application of such enzymes is in the
treatment of food waste, which is rich in carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that
could potentially be recycled into other products such as biofuels.

Lactose is a major food waste product produced during yogurt manufacturing,

being perceived as significantly less sweet than glucose by humans and
therefore having less use within the food industry, besides concerns related to
lactose intolerance. Enzymes are used to hydrolyze lactose into glucose, which
can then be used in other food manufacturing processes.

More recently, lactose has been transformed into lactulose, a disaccharide

prebiotic with suggested health benefits by immobilization of β-galactosidase
onto a magnetic chitosan microsphere using a cellulose-binding domain. The
enzyme is able to retain its activity over 20 cycles of use, which though
impressive, still forces manufacturers to utilize lower-cost stationary phases.

Several enzyme immobilization methods have been developed that allow

recovery and reuse, including flat solid supports and particulate supports, in the
form of microbeads or nanoparticles, constructed from a wide range of
materials with particular advantages and disadvantages. Researchers have
noted a change in the activity of an enzyme depends on the support on which it
is bound, with enzymes bound with nanoparticles, for example, exhibiting a
negative correlation between nanoparticle diameter and activity in some cases.

The use of magnetic particles as described above allows the enzyme to be

recovered using magnets, or particles constructed from heavier materials that
can be recovered by centrifugation may be employed. In any case, a greater
understanding of the biochemical processes taking place in any reaction, and
how they may be influenced by factors intended to improve the efficiency of the
process, will allow the biochemistry taking place to be applied to newly
developing biotechnologies.

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References:
Heckmann & Paradisi (2020) Looking Back: A Short History of the
Discovery of Enzymes and How They Became Powerful Chemical Tools.
Chemcatchem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7756376/
Tishkov, Savin & Yasnaya (2010) Protein Engineering of Penicillin Acylase.
Acta Nature. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3347563/
Andler & Goddard (2018) Transforming food waste: how immobilized
enzymes can valorize waste streams into revenue streams. NPJ Science of
Food. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-018-0028-2#Sec2

Further Reading
All Biochemistry Content

What is Biochemistry?

What is Bioorganic Chemistry?

An Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics

Using Biochemistry in Pest Control

More...

Last Updated: Aug 11, 2021

Written by

Michael Greenwood
Michael graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a B.Sc. in Chemistry
in 2014, where he majored in organic, inorganic, physical and analytical chemistry.
He is currently completing a Ph.D. on the design and production of gold nanoparticles
able to act as multimodal anticancer agents, being both drug delivery platforms and

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radiation dose enhancers.

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