Recent insights into microbial pectin lyases: A review

Pectin, also known as pectic compounds, is a fundamental component of plant cell walls that imparts rigidity and structure. Pectin lyases have a unique β-elimination mechanism of directly degrading pectin polymers to 4, 5-unsaturated oligogalacturonides, while other pectinases have preferences for sequential degradation. Members of the pectin lyase family have characteristic Pec_Lyase_C domain and β-helix structure. They have been successfully isolated and characterized from different bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Based on their biochemical properties, pectin lyase is one of the most important enzymes in the commercial sector. In the current biotechnological world, these enzymes play a massive role in juice processing industries, retting of fibres, biosurfactant production, and they possess a biocontrol effect. Pectin lyases are promising for the fruit juice industry as they maintain the typical odor of juice and do not form extremely harmful methanol as a by-product. Several recent innovations related to production, purification, and molecular insights have been reported since the last review published by our group in 2009. This review is an attempt to update the sources, production strategies, biochemical attributes, molecular and expression profiling, bioinformatics, and genomic-driven research exclusively in pectin lyases.