Plant Molecular Farming for the Bulk Production of Industrial Enzymes

Nearly all industries are looking for biocatalysts for value-added compound production. The key benefits of using biocatalytic enzymes in processing are higher product quality, cleaner reagents and environmentally friendly production, lower energy consumption and manufacturing costs, less waste, and no hazardous operations unlike the chemical-based reactions. Consequently, the increased need for enzymes in industrial processes is the driving force in enzyme technology research. Major industrial enzymes currently originate from well-established conventional microbial sources (e.g., Escherichia coli, Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces ssp., and Pichia ssp.). Recombinant plant systems have been regarded as relatively economic source for the bulk production of industrial enzymes. Nevertheless, plant molecular farming is yet a small position in terms of the commercialized enzyme products because the plant expression systems are surrounded with the matter of low production compared with already well-established microbial cell factories. The main obstacles that prevent the industrial production of plant-made recombinant enzymes, which are inadequate amassing of the products within the plant cells and difficulty in founding competent methods for recombinant enzyme isolation and purification from plant material. Approaches that target host metabolic and protein engineering are substantially in the laboratory R&D stage. A visible disinterest exists in the large manufacturing industry for marketable progress of molecular farming enzymes from plants. This is mostly because, the current plant purification and downstream processing techniques lack economically sustainable strategies for large-scale industrial production. Current advancements in the recombinant enzyme production in existing and forthcoming plant platforms in the commercial pipeline were evaluated through patent analysis 2006–2021. The patents databases provide comparative information concentrating on research tendencies in the major R&D application fields, key technologies, and locations (e.g., institutes and countries). In conclusion, plant cell-based enzyme production is expected to stand the pace with common microbial cell factories currently employed in the manufacturing of the recombinant enzymes only if researchers demonstrate strategies for developing of competent recombinant protein expressing plant models together with the cost reduction of downstream processing for economically sustainable enzyme extraction methods at an industrial scale.