ATPS: “Aqueous two-phase system” as the “answer to protein separation” for protein-processing food industry

ABSTRACT

Every individual needs food for its nutritional value and flavor while the economic growth of a nation depends on a thriving profit-generating industry. The food industry caters to both needs in an efficient manner. Proteins can rightly be considered as the driving force behind the overwhelming success of this industry. However, purification of proteins is not an easy undertaking due to their intricate nature while presently employed procedures for this purpose, regrettably, are both costly, and labor- and time-intensive in addition to being unsettling on proteins structural conformity. ATPS has accumulated a lot of interest from the scientific community due to its mild operating conditions, high recovery yield, ease of scaling it up, and its cost-effective and environment friendly nature. This review tries to amass some accounts concerning the utility of ATPS for the separation and purification of proteins. Some auspicious clues in this regard can be witnessed along with a few loopholes which need to be addressed before this technique can truly demonstrate its potential vis-à-vis industrial protein purification. Overall, a polymer – salt (citrates in particular) ATPS with an added inert supplementary salt can be regarded as a better option for purifying proteins.

KEYWORDS:

• ATPS
• food industry
• food proteins
• industrial uses of proteins
• protein purification

Declaration of Interest

None to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21476135 & 81741167), Educational Commission of Guangdong Province, China (2016KZDXM014), Ocean and Fisheries Administration Project of Guangdong Province, China (2017) and the National Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2017A030307014).