Organic solvent tolerant bacteria and enzymes for application in biocatalysis

Biocatalysts for application in the presence of organic solvents have various kinds of advantages. Unfortunately, enzymes are generally very labile catalysts and easily lose their activity in the presence of organic solvents. Organic solvent tolerant bacteria are a novel group of extremophilic microorganisms with various adaptations to thrive in the presence of high concentrations of organic solvents, and some enzymes form them with organic solvent tolerant ability as well. With the exploitation and development of the field, the search for high effective biocatalysts from these kinds of bacteria has become a novel research hotspot, and they are more and more using for application in the field of organic phase biocatalysis. In this review, we describe the exploitation and application and development of these kinds of novel organic solvent tolerant biocatalysts, and the facing opportunities and challenges in the field is discussed.