Enzimas en el jabón en polvo

El uso de microorganismos en la industria está muy diversificado en estos tiempos. Las aplicaciones son muy variadas y van desde la alimenticia, como la producción de quesos y panes, hasta la petroquímica, poniendo como ejemplo a bacterias que son capaces de degradar el petróleo y generar productos inocuos para el medio ambiente.

En la industria textil y de químicos para limpieza podemos citar un bichito muy útil, el Bacillus lincheniformis. Esta bacteria es muy empleada para la elaboración de detergentes y jabones en polvo.

¿Dónde radica su potencial? Esta bacteria nos proporciona componentes que ayudan a degradar restos de comida o manchas en la ropa. Restos proteicos que puedan encontrarse en una prenda luego de haberla manchado con sangre, por ejemplo, se degradan con ayuda de la subtilisina, una proteasa (un tipo especial de enzima) obtenida de B. lincheniformis y comunmente secretada por otros bacilos.

La amilasa ayuda a degradar restos de almidón (proveniente de alimentos como la papa), y en particular, la extraída de esta bacteria, es muy resistente a la accion de proteasas, a temperaturas por sobre los 85 grados y a medios muy alcalinos.
El uso de enzimas en la industria para la producción de jabones lleva muchas décadas de constante mejora.

Algo más curioso aún, dónde podemos encontrar muchos B. lincheniformis?, en las plumas de las aves!

About proteins

Proteins are very complex biomolecules presented in many type of organisms like bacteria (prokaryotic cells) and animals (eukaryotic cells). They are formed by the addition of many amino acids.

The lipid bilayer that covers the cell has many proteins encrusted in its surface. It makes the cell to be very selective in which molecules can cross the bilayer, allowing the simple diffusion for oxygen and other small molecules. Water is a big molecule to pass the bilayer so it needs to be help by a specific protein called aquaporin. The proteins presented in this bilayer function like selective transports. There is another important transmembrane protein like ATPasa that are involved in ATP production and located in the mitochondrial surface.

Proteins that go entirely across the lipid bilayer are known as integral membrane proteins and they have a big hydrophobic polypeptide region. On the other hand, we have proteins that are only located in the surface of one layer and they are called peripheral membrane proteins.

Proteins have different conformations; it means that they are able to fold themselves in order to take the most biochemical stable form. The two principal conformations are α-helixes and β-sheets. The conformation of a protein is stable in a specific physiological environment. If we change the pH (protons concentration) in order to make the medium more o less acidic, temperature or salt concentration, the protein will start denaturizing itself. And if bad conditions persist in time, the molecule could be destroyed.

Many animal proteins have carbohydrates covalently united. These carbohydrates are exposed to the surface of the cell and they function like signs to other molecules like those taking place in sperm-egg interaction, blood clotting and inflammatory responses.

We can extract and purify proteins by different methods. We could use detergents for this job like SDS (ionic) or Triton (nonionic) and then we could analyze the proteins using electrophoresis.