ABSTRACT
Starch is the major carbohydrate reserve in most of the food crops especially in wheat, rice, maize, and potato. Amylase is one of the most promising enzyme, hydrolyses starch and related polymers. ?-Amylase cleaves the ?-1,4 glycosidic bond in the interior of the starch molecule, produces mono- or oligosaccharides. Microbes are the major sources of ?-amylase for its industrial applications. This enzyme belongs to glycosyl hydrolases family 13 and all the enzymes of this family have a common arrangement with (?/?)8 barrel structure or TIM barrel. Generally, α-amylase reacts through the α-retaining double displacement mechanism. The optimum temperature and pH generally varies from 30°C–100°C and 4–10 respectively. ?-amylase holds more than 25% share in the enzyme market with its potential applications in food, pharmaceutical, textile, and detergent industries and bio-fuel production. Recently, protein engineering have been applied to improve the structural and physico-chemical properties of the enzyme for its better applications.
