Truncated α-amylase: an improved candidate for textile processing

Abstract

Enzymes are indispensable biocatalysts required in various steps of textile processing to minimize various chemical-induced hazards. The present work focuses on the applications of the truncated α-amylase in textile industry for desizing of fabrics by starch hydrolysis. The multiple sequence alignment was performed to find homology and the possible truncation region in Bacillus subtilis MTCC 121 α-amylase with same bacilli family α-amylase. Two constructs were generated for α-amylase gene of Bacillus subtilis MTCC 121 (Amy_F, full-length and Amy_T, C-terminal truncated) were cloned, overexpressed, purified, and characterized. Results revealed that activity of Amy_T was found to be 2.87-fold better than Amy_F. Further, the optimum temperature of Amy_F and Amy_T was obtained at 45 °C and 55 °C, respectively, whereas optimum pH was recorded at pH 7 and pH 8, respectively. Improved thermostability of Amy_T was further confirmed through thermal shift assay. Subsequently, starch-coated fabrics were tested for starch removal using the α-amylases. Comparative analysis revealed that Amy_T performed better in starch removal from polystyrene (85%), silk (75%), and cotton (70%) fabrics. The removal of starch from the fabrics was further confirmed by FESEM. Conclusively, this work presents one truncated α-amylase as an improved candidate over its full-length counterpart for textile desizing.

Keywords:

• Amylase
• desizing
• stability
• starch
• textile
• truncated

Acknowledgments

PS and MFK acknowledge Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for providing research fellowship. They are also grateful to Dr Debasree Kundu for her continuous support.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi (37(1600)/13/EMR-II) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi (BT/535/NE/TBP/2013).