Role of Lytic Enzymes in Protein and DNA Extraction

Lytic enzymes have a fairly prominent role in protein and DNA extraction. There are multiple enzymes that can be potentially used for lysis, depending on the applications and your lab's unique needs. Understanding lytic enzymes is essential to the process of successful protein extraction. Though physical lysis has been used in the past, it's no longer feasible -- and it's always important that lysis be completed with the proper lytic enzymes, to yield the most valuable results. 

Lytic Enzymes and Protein Extraction

For years, physical lysis was commonly used for the purposes of cellular disruption and extraction. But in recent years, enzymatic and detergent-based lysis has become preferred. Physical lysis is extremely expensive and can also be inaccurate and difficult to reliably repeat. In today's laboratories, physical lysis simply takes too long and requires too much work for it to be feasible. 

This is why lytic enzymes are now preferred. Through lytic enzymes, lysis can be performed in a scalable and repeatable fashion. Depending on the type of solution that is utilized, lysis can be performed to be ideal for different applications. Detergent-based lysis can also be used in order to create more soluble compounds. Lytic enzymes are able to create a lysis process that is more suitable to modern laboratory processes. But there are a large number of commonly used lytic enzymes.

Types of Lytic Enzymes Used for Protein Extraction

Different lytic enzymes are generally used for different purposes. Below is a list of commonly used lytic enzymes and their applications:

• Labiase, Lysostaphin and Lysozyme are enzymes that are generally used for the of lysis for bacterial applications.
• Achromopeptidaseis useful for lysis with bacteria that are Gram-positive and resistant to lysozyme. It is available in both product and solution form. 
• Lyticase is commonly used for lysis with yeast. Yeast cells are fairly unique in that their cellular walls are quite dense.
• Cellulase is commonly used for plant cell lysis.

• Mutanolysin is a very gentle type of lytic enzyme, which is important for certain applications.
• Mutanolysin is often used in the process of DNA extraction, which makes it vital to many laboratories.
• Lyticase is another enzyme that is generally useful for DNA extraction. It is especially useful for breaking down DNA from yeast cell walls, as yeast cells can be particularly difficult to work with.  
• Lysozyme can be used for Gram-negative bacteria, though it is more useful for Gram-positive bacteria. There are some bacteria that can be resistant to lysozyme, but it's still a common lytic enzyme.
• Labiase is another enzyme solution that is designed from Gram-positive bacteria. The enzyme is mostly used for bacteria such as Aerococcus, Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus.
• Trypzean is designed for plant proteins, separating out animal source contaminants. Plant proteins will generally require different enzymes than animal proteins.