Thesis supervisor: Miklós Takó
co-supervisor: Alexandra Kotogán
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged Abbreviation of location of studies: SzTE
Description of the research topic:
Hydrolase enzymes are widespread in the living world. Besides hydrolytic activity, they are able to catalyze synthetic reactions resulting in various biotechnologically important compounds. Mucoromycota fungi are a remarkable group of filamentous fungi. Many species of them have successfully been used in several areas of biotechnological applications. Microbial hydrolase-catalyzed enzymatic synthesis reactions are intensively studied field of researches; however, we know little about such property of zygomycetous fungal enzymes. The aim of the present work is the investigation of the enzymatic synthesis reactions (transglycosylation, transesterification) catalyzed by zygomycetous fungal hydrolases (mainly cellulases and lipases). Researches will cover enzyme production and purification studies, biochemical characterization of the biosynthetic reactions and analysis of the enzymological-biological background of some properties which support the practical applicability of selected enzymes.
Our relevant publications:
1. Kotogán A, Kecskeméti A, Szekeres A, Papp T, Chandrasekaran M, Kadaikunnan S, Alharbi NS, Vágvölgyi C, Takó M: Characterization of transesterification reactions by Mucoromycotina lipases in non-aqueous media. Journal of Molecular Catalysis B-Enzymatic 127: pp. 47-55. (2016)
2. Krisch J, Bencsik O, Papp T, Vágvölgyi Cs, Takó M: Characterization of a β-glucosidase with transgalactosylation capacity from the zygomycete Rhizomucor miehei. Bioresource Technology 114: pp. 555-560. (2012)
Required language skills: English B2 Recommended language skills (in Hungarian): English Further requirements: MSc diploma from relevant fields (e.g. Biology, Food engineering, Biotechnology)