Microbiome Perspective: Multisectorial Exploitations of Chitinases

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Chitinases are cosmopolitan lytic enzymes secreted by microbiomes that fall under the domain of fungi, yeasts, bacteria and plants. Most fungal plant pathogens, human infectious agents and post-harvest damage caused by pathogens have been a serious threat to the economy and human health. Like fungi, crabs, insects, lobsters, shrimps, and invertebrates all have a hard disintegrating, flexible polymer called chitin that forms the exterior skeleton. It poses a wide-range of environmental problem and a major threat to humans, plants and animals. According to functional genomic research, there is a large diversity of chitinases-producing fungi in nature. They have adapted to a wide range of habitats on Earth including plants, animals and manmade natural and artificial habitats. Chitinases, both native and genetically modified, have been produced and expressed in an expression system such as Escherichia coli or Pichia pastoris through recombinant DNA technology. This versatile recombinant chitinases can be used for long-term growth and productivity. As a whole, chitinases have a wide range of applications in agriculture, horticulture , plant health, and bio-control of pests, and even some fuel processing, genetically engineered molecule-based therapies, polysaccharide hydrolysis, biomedicine, pathogenic/virulence agents, antifungal agents, and as a drug delivery system.