Nagpure Anand, Choudhary Bharti, Gupta Rajinder K
University School of Biotechnology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University , New Delhi , India.
Crit Rev Biotechnol. 2014 Sep;34(3):215-32. doi: 10.3109/07388551.2013.790874. Epub 2013 Jul 16.
Biological control of phytopathogenic fungi and insects continues to inspire the research and development of environmentally friendly bioactive alternatives. Potentially lytic enzymes, chitinases can act as a biocontrol agent against agriculturally important fungi and insects. The cell wall in fungi and protective covers, i.e. cuticle in insects shares a key structural polymer, chitin, a β-1,4-linked N-acetylglucosamine polymer. Therefore, it is advantageous to develop a common biocontrol agent against both of these groups. As chitin is absent in plants and mammals, targeting its metabolism will signify an eco-friendly strategy for the control of agriculturally important fungi and insects but is innocuous to mammals, plants, beneficial insects and other organisms. In addition, development of chitinase transgenic plant varieties probably holds the most promising method for augmenting agricultural crop protection and productivity, when properly integrated into traditional systems. Recently, human proteins with chitinase activity and chitinase-like proteins were identified and established as biomarkers for human diseases. This review covers the recent advances of chitinases as a biocontrol agent and its various applications including preparation of medically important chitooligosaccharides, bioconversion of chitin as well as in implementing chitinases as diagnostic and prognostic markers for numerous diseases and the prospect of their future utilization.
植物病原真菌和昆虫的生物防治持续激发着对环境友好型生物活性替代品的研发。几丁质酶作为一种潜在的裂解酶，可充当针对农业上重要真菌和昆虫的生物防治剂。真菌的细胞壁以及昆虫的保护覆盖物（即表皮）都含有一种关键的结构聚合物——几丁质，它是一种β-1,4-连接的N-乙酰葡糖胺聚合物。因此，开发一种针对这两类生物的通用生物防治剂具有优势。由于几丁质在植物和哺乳动物中不存在，针对其代谢进行调控将是一种生态友好型策略，可用于防治农业上重要的真菌和昆虫，同时对哺乳动物、植物、有益昆虫及其他生物无害。此外，将几丁质酶转基因植物品种恰当地整合到传统系统中，可能是增强农作物保护和提高产量最具前景的方法。最近，具有几丁质酶活性的人类蛋白质和几丁质酶样蛋白质被鉴定出来，并被确立为人类疾病的生物标志物。本综述涵盖了几丁质酶作为生物防治剂的最新进展及其各种应用，包括制备医学上重要的壳寡糖、几丁质的生物转化，以及将几丁质酶用作多种疾病的诊断和预后标志物及其未来应用前景。
