Abstract:
The scarcity of the fossil fuels and their use as conventional energy source has inflicted drastic
effects on the environment, stimulating the research to explore renewable and sustainable energy
resources. Biodiesel produced via enzymatic catalysis is committed to serve as an alternative green
energy fuel. This signifies the role of lipase to be integrated as a biocatalyst in the
transesterification process behind biodiesel. Lipase being a ubiquitous enzyme is naturally
produced by a plethora of organisms including animals, plants and microorganisms. Lipases from
Candida rugosa are currently utilized in biodiesel synthesis, however, due to the specie’s
pathogenicity and containment during the fermentation process the overall production cost is
elevated. The current study is a comparative investigation of a novel lipase of edible mushroom;
Pleurotus ostreatus (Pleolip241) with Candida rugosa (1GZ7 and 1CRL). To distinguish the
optimum biocatalyst activities of these lipases, comparative assessment was performed to study
the protein structure, amino acid assemblies, catalytic triads, active sites and its residues. Based on
the molecular docking against different substrate and binding energy scores the best enzyme substrate model was identified. Edible mushroom lipase (Pleolip241) showed better affinity
towards the substrate along with more stability at higher temperatures as compared lipases of
Candida rugosa. In conclusion, Pleolip241 proved be a promising candidate and can be considered
as green catalyst for sustainable biodiesel production.
