Comparative In-silico Study of Pathogenic Candida and Edible Mushroom Lipases as Green Catalysts for Sustainable Biodiesel Production

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.