Plant-Based
Non-thermal, chemical-free approaches for protein purification
Protein functionality is governed by its degree of purity. Membrane filtration is a promising technology to obtain pristine and functional proteins from plant-based sources, microalgae, and seaweeds. It is worth exploring its application in the production of high-purity proteins from agri-food industry sidestreams.
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Plant-Based
- R&D
- Ingredient optimization
For more information on this topic, please see the following recent resources:
- GFIdeas India & Pall Corporation: Masterclass on Protein Processing
- Membrane filtration and isoelectric precipitation technological approaches for the preparation of novel, functional and sustainable protein isolate from lentils
- An integrated method of isolating napin and cruciferin from defatted canola meal
Current challenges
Plant proteins or fermentation-derived proteins are selected for end-product applications based on their functionality, which is governed by many factors such as their source and the processing approaches applied to obtain them (dry or wet fractionation, drying method, physical, chemical, or biological modification, and so on). Another vital factor that influences protein functionality is the degree of purity. While plant proteins are often associated with other macromolecules such as starch and lipids, the recombinant proteins produced through precision fermentation contain the microorganisms, the growth medium, and impurities. The series of steps involved in protein purification, such as thermal and/or chemical precipitation at the isoelectric point or centrifugation, can cause partial protein denaturation that can affect functionality and lead to the loss of valuable products, thereby reducing the protein yield. Moreover, these purification approaches are energy-intensive and involve chemical usage. Though purification of recombinant proteins by affinity chromatography results in high recovery yields and purity, it relies on specific affinity adsorbents for each particular target protein. Moreover, the cost of purification by chromatography is high, which limits its applications for the commercial production of proteins.
Proposed solutions
Microfiltration and ultrafiltration have shown promise in obtaining high yields, purity, and functionality of plant proteins (from cereals, legumes, nuts, and oilseeds) produced by dry and wet fractionation processes. These techniques have high specificity and capability in achieving separation between the albumin and globulin fractions of plant proteins. The usefulness of these purification methods can be extended to proteins isolated from a wide range of sources, such as seeds, pulses, leaves, pseudocereals, microalgae, fermentation-derived/single-cell proteins, and seaweeds. Further, the applications of membrane technologies for the production of pristine proteins from the side streams of agro-food industries must be explored and standardised for commercial-scale operations.
Successful proposals are expected to focus on the following concepts:
- Developing a database on the molecular size of plant proteins from different sources (cereals, pseudocereals, pulses, legumes, oilseeds, nuts, leaves, edible seeds, and tubers) and the associated macromolecular residues attached to these proteins
- Optimisation of membrane filtration processes for the purification of fermentation-derived proteins
- Standardisation of membrane technologies for the purification of proteins derived from industrial side streams
- Elucidation of the physicochemical properties, functionalities and functional performance of plant protein fractions purified using microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes with different molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO)
- Evaluation of the potential of membrane filtration techniques for the removal of anti-nutritional factors in plant proteins