This invention relates to a carrier for immobilizing a biocatalyst including a Fe.sub.2O.sub.3 yolk-shell structure, to an immobilized enzyme using the carrier, and to realizing an increase in the stability of the enzyme and stability in organic solvents by cross-linking the enzyme. According to this invention, the carrier for immobilizing a biocatalyst and the enzyme immobilized thereon can be reused, have increased stability, facilitate the control of reactivity, pH, and temperature, and can be widely useful in various biochemical engineering industries.

Enzyme compositions with enhanced enzyme activity and/or thermophilic and psychrophilic stability are described. Additionally, methods and kits for making and using the enzyme compositions are provided.

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having laccase activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.

A strategy for eliminating or greatly reducing the need for physical/chemical treatments or the use of whole microbes for lignocellulosic biomass and organopollutant degradation is disclosed. The soybean is a practical, cost-efficient and sustainable bioreactor for the production of lignin-degrading and cellulose-degrading enzymes. The use of soybean as a transgenic overexpression platform provides advantages that no other industrial scale enzyme expression system can match. Availability of a battery of related plant biomass degrading enzymes in separate transgenic soybean lines provides unprecedented flexibility in industrial and bioremediation processes. Depending upon the particular application, selected soybean-derived powdered enzyme formulations can be used, and their sequential addition can be orchestrated. Manufacturing enzymes using transgenic soybeans wherein these enzymes are capable of lignocellulose and organopollutant degradation into useful or nontoxic products will dramatically change biomass engineering schemes and environmental remediation practices. This technology has a sum of advantages that other protein expression system cannot duplicate, including the manufacturing of individual enzymes in a cost-effective manner that allows flexibility in cocktail composition, ease of application, and long term storage in the absence of a cold chain.

Aspects of the present disclosure are drawn to methods of improving the expression of secreted cuproenzymes from host cells by manipulating the expression level of one or more proteins involved in copper transport in the host cell, e.g., membrane-bound copper transporting ATPases and soluble copper transporters. The present disclosure also provides compositions containing such improved host cells as well as products derived from the improved host cells that contain one or more cuproenzymes of interest.

The invention addresses the need for enzymes that can enhance the yield of fermentable sugar from the hydrolysis of lignocellulose biomass, for example sugar cane bagasse, barley straw and wheat straw, such that the use of this biomass can become economically viable. The invention provides methods for the hydrolysis of biomass using a laccase derived from Ganoderma lucidum. Further, the invention provides an enzyme composition comprising a laccase derived from Ganoderma lucidum which may be combined with one or more cellulases, and for its use in enhancing lignocellulose biomass hydrolysis.

A hierarchical catalyst composition comprising a continuous or particulate macroporous scaffold in which is incorporated mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles, wherein an enzyme is embedded in mesopores of the mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles. Methods for synthesizing the hierarchical catalyst composition are also described. Also described are processes that use the recoverable hierarchical catalyst composition for depolymerizing lignin, remediation of water contaminated with aromatic substances, polymerizing monomers by a free-radical mechanism, epoxidation of alkenes, halogenation of phenols, inhibiting growth and function of microorganisms in a solution, and carbon dioxide conversion to methanol. Further described are methods for increasing the space time yield and/or total turnover number of a liquid-phase chemical reaction that includes magnetic particles to facilitate the chemical reaction, the method comprising subjecting the chemical reaction to a plurality of magnetic fields of selected magnetic strength, relative position in the chemical reaction, and relative motion.

The present disclosure relates to the use of specific laccases as dye transfer-inhibiting active substances during the washing of textiles, and to detergents containing said laccases.

A hierarchical catalyst composition comprising a continuous or particulate macroporous scaffold in which is incorporated mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles, wherein an enzyme is embedded in mesopores of the mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles. Methods for synthesizing the hierarchical catalyst composition are also described. Also described are processes that use the recoverable hierarchical catalyst composition for depolymerizing lignin, remediation of water contaminated with aromatic substances, polymerizing monomers by a free-radical mechanism, epoxidation of alkenes, halogenation of phenols, inhibiting growth and function of microorganisms in a solution, and carbon dioxide conversion to methanol. Further described are methods for increasing the space time yield and/or total turnover number of a liquid-phase chemical reaction that includes magnetic particles to facilitate the chemical reaction, the method comprising subjecting the chemical reaction to a plurality of magnetic fields of selected magnetic strength, relative position in the chemical reaction, and relative motion.

The technical field of enzyme immobilization, and particularly, an organic-inorganic hybrid nanoflower and a preparation method thereof. The organic-inorganic hybrid nanoflower is a flower-like immobilized enzyme formed by self-assembly of a layered rare earth compound as an inorganic carrier and a biological enzyme as an organic component. The layered rare earth compound is Ln.sub.2(OH).sub.5NO.sub.3.nH.sub.2O, where Ln is one or more of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, or Y, and n=1.1-2.5. The biological enzyme is one or more of α-amylase, horseradish peroxidase, or laccase. A layered rare earth compound is used as the inorganic carrier for the organic biological enzyme to form the flower-like immobilized enzyme. The immobilized enzyme has better stability and higher catalytic performance when compared with a free enzyme.