Microbial Chitinases and Their Applications: An Overview

Microorganisms synthesize an array of glycosyl hydrolytic enzymes quantitatively and chitinase is one among them. In general, the persistence of chitinase form microbial source is availing elemental carbon and nitrogen as precursors or nutrient sources and the insatiability of this enzyme plays a significant role mainly in parasitism against chitinaceous host. Out of different microbial chitinases availed in public domain, soil bacterial chitinases share more than half of genomes and mostly are of actinobacterial origin. The others are from proteobacteria, yeast, moulds, and few viral sources. With the advent of biotechnology, the production of chitinases is increased to many folds. Extracellular chitinases disintegrate chitin polymers to produce oligomers having several applications. The microbial chitinases are being broadly applied in various realms including agricultural, biomedical, pharmaceutical, industrial, and environmental. The wide application is well marked as biopesticides and biocontrol agents. Furthermore, the waste minimization with chitinase application is surplus to the environmental cleanup initiatives. The present chapter is inclusive of production of microbial chitinases and their detail applications in descriptive manner.