Glucoamylase Research: An Overview

Abstract

This paper reviews the main features of glucoamylase research describing essentially more recent developments on microorganisms, production and properties of glucoamylases. It is an important industrial enzyme and is widely used in starch saccharification, brewing and distilling industry. Glucoamylase can be derived from a wide variety of sources including plants, animals and microorganisms. Most of the production techniques essentially, however, are based on microbial sources. It is an extracellular enzyme and has got second place (next to proteases) in world's distribution and sales among industrial enzymes. Most of the production of glucoamylase is carried out using liquid fermentation process. Technique of solid state fermentation, however, have also been employed for its production and recently this technique is gaining renewed interest from researchers for its production. The paper also describes aspects related with the purification and characterization of glucoamylase enzyme.