International Journal of Bioassays ISSN: 2278-778X www.ijbio.com R Re ev vi i e ew w A Ar rt t i ic c l l e e *Corresponding Author: Preeti Sonkar, Institute of Environment & Development studies, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (U.P.), India. 909 LACCASES: SOURCES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATION Vinit Kumar and Preeti Sonkar* Institute of Environment & Development studies, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (U.P.), India Received for publication: April 22, 2013; Accepted: May 17, 2013 INTRODUCTION Laccases (benzenediol: oxygen oxi-reductase, EC 1.10.3.2) exist widely in nature and belongs to small group of enzymes called the blue copper protein or cupper oxidases (Sivakumar et al., 2010). These proteins are characterized by containing copper atoms. One copper is placed at the T1 site, where reducing substrate binds, and other three coppers are clustered in which molecular oxygen binds. Laccases play an important role in several industry, paper and pulp industry, textile industry, synthetic chemistry, cosmetics, soil bioremediation and biodegradation of environmental phenolic pollutant and removal of endocrine disruptors. Recently laccases have been efficiently applied to nano biotechnology due to their ability to catalyze electron transfer reactions without additional cofactor (Shraddha et al., 2011). In future, laccase are a useful enzyme for biotechnological application in decolorization and biodegradation of contaminating environmental pollutants. Laccases have many biotechnological applications because of their oxidation ability towards a broad range of phenolic and non-phenolic compounds (Mohammadian et al., 2010). Laccases source: In 1883, yoshida first described laccase when he extracted it from the Japanese lacquer tree, Rhus vernicifera. In 1896 laccase was demonstrated to be present in fungi for the first time by both Bertrand and laborde. Laccase are widely distributed in higher plants, bacteria, fungi, and insects which detail are present in below as: Plant: Cabbages, Turnips, Beets, Apples, Asparagus, Potatoes, Pears, Peach, sycamore, tobacco and various other vegetables. Recently, laccase has been expressed in the embryo of maize (Zea mays) seeds (Bailey et al.,2004; Arora and Sharma, 2010). Fungi: Fungal laccases have higher redox potential than bacterial or plant. Fungi from the deuteromycetes, ascomycetes (Aisemberg et al., 1989) as well as basidiomycetes are the known producers of laccase (Sadhasivam et al., 2008) which name detail as: (A) Ascomycetes: Monocillium indicum was first laccase to be characterised and Polyporus versicolor, Neurospora crassa and Aspergillus nidulans etc. (B) Basidiomycete: Schizophyllum commune, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Theiophora terrestris, Lenzites, Betulina, White-rot fungy (Phlebia radiate, Pleurotus ostreatus, Trametes versicolour), Trametes fungy, Coriolopsis fulvocinerea and Cerrena unicolor etc. Other wood-rotting fungi include T. hirsuta (C. hirsutus), T. villosa, T. gallica, Cerrena maxima, Lentinus tigrinus, T. ochracea, Pleurotuseryngii, Trametes (Coriolus) versicolor and Coriolopsis polyzona, etc. (Morozova et al., 2007). (C) Deuteromycete: Production of laccase by a newly isolated fungus was Pestalotiopsis sp. (Hao et al., 2007). Bacteria: Bacterial laccase was first reported in Azospirillum lipoferum (Givaudan et al., 1993); it plays a role in cell pigmentation, oxidation of phenolic compounds (Faure et al., 1994, 1995) and/or electron transport (Alexandre et al., 1999). Other name as E. coli, Bacillus subtilis, S. laven dulae, S. cyaneus, Marinomonas mediterranea, Aquifex aceolicus, Azospirillum lipoferum, Bacillus sp., Bacillus halodurans, Leptothrix discophora SS1, Oceano bacillusiheyensis (cotA), Alpha- Abstract: Pollution increased day by day, laccase are an oxido reductases enzyme which play a significant role in remediation. Production of laccase has sink from plant, fungi, bacteria, and insect etc. Present study on their use in several industrial applications, includes dye decolourization, detoxification of environmental pollutants and revalorization of wastes and wastewaters etc. Here we provide a brief discussion of this interesting group of enzymes, increased knowledge of which will promote laccase based industrial processes in future. Keywords: Laccase, Biodegradation and Bioremediation, Decolorization.