Protein Engineering vs Enzyme Engineering for a Biocatalyst
Although the terms protein engineering and enzyme engineering may sometimes be used interchangably, there is a subtle difference between the two. Protein engineering enables alterations in the structure, function and selectivity of enzymes, particularly in aqueous medium. Enzyme engineering, on the other hand, sometimes also involves engineering of the enzyme microenvironment, thus providing improvements in non-aqueous environments, since enzymes do function in organic solvents. Such non-aqueous environments provide many advantages including the following: (i) higher substrate solubility; (ii) reversal of hydrolytic reactions, and (iii) modified enzyme specificity. These advantages also generate new enzyme activities, that were earlier possible only through genetic modifications or using complex multistep pathways within the cells.