Abstract
Phosphorus is stored in the form of phytate in cereal grains, legumes and oil seeds. Usually this phytate is not digested by the animals and animal manure results in phosphorus pollution. Phytase (myo-inositol hexakisphosphate phosphohydrolases, EC 3.1.3.8) catalyze the hydrolysis of phytate (myoinositolhexakisphosphate), phytic acid and results in the release of phosphorus. There are many sources of phytase production like plants, animals and microbes (bacteria, fungus, yeast) but on industrial scale microbial source is preferred. On industrial level phytase is produced by microbes by solid state and submerged fermentation. Phytase is purified by different methods like ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis and size exclusion chromatography. The applications of phytase with respect to animal feed supplement, bread making, aquaculture feed, degradation of pesticides and transgenic crops are emphasized in this paper.
