Background: Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, is a constantly valuable and renewable raw material after cellulose. Due to advancement in technology, industrial interest has grown to take advantage of the chitin.

Objective: Now, biomass is being treated with diverse microbial enzymes or cells for the production of desired products under best industrial conditions. Glycosidic bonds in chitin structure are degraded by chitinase enzymes, which are characterized into number of glycoside hydrolase (GHs) families.

Methods: Thermophilic microorganisms are remarkable sources of industrially important thermostable enzymes, having ability to survive harsh industrial processing conditions. Thermostable chitinases have an edge over mesophilic chitinases as they can hydrolyse the substrate at relatively high temperatures and exhibit decreased viscosity, significantly reduced contamination risk, thermal and chemical stability and increased solubility. Various methods are employed to purify the enzyme and increase its yield by optimizing various parameters such as temperature, pH, agitation, and by investigating the effect of different chemicals and metal ions etc.

Results: Thermostable chitinase enzymes show high specific activity at elevated temperature which distinguish them from mesophiles. Genetic engineering can be used for further improvement of natural chitinases, and unlimited potential for the production of thermophilic chitinases has been highlighted due to advancement in synthetic biological techniques. Thermostable chitinases are then used in different fields such as bioremediation, medicine, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.

Conclusion: This review will provide information about chitinases, biotechnological potential of thermostable enzyme and the methods by which they are being produced and optimized for several industrial applications. Some of the applications of thermostable chitinases have also been briefly described.

背景：甲壳素是自然界中含量第二丰富的多糖，是继纤维素之后价值不断提高的可再生原料。由于技术的进步，工业界对利用几丁质的兴趣日益浓厚。

目标：现在，生物质正在用各种微生物酶或细胞处理，以在最佳工业条件下生产所需产品。几丁质结构中的糖苷键被几丁质酶降解，其特征在于糖苷水解酶（GHs）家族的数量。

方法：嗜热微生物是重要的工业热稳定酶的重要来源，具有在恶劣的工业加工条件下存活的能力。耐热几丁质酶优于嗜温几丁质酶，因为它们可以在相对较高的温度下水解底物并表现出降低的粘度、显着降低污染风险、热和化学稳定性以及增加的溶解度。通过优化各种参数（如温度、pH 值、搅拌）以及研究不同化学品和金属离子等的影响，采用了各种方法来纯化酶并提高其产量。

结果： 热稳定性几丁质酶在升高的温度下显示出高比活性，这将它们与嗜温菌区分开来。基因工程可用于进一步改进天然几丁质酶，并且由于合成生物学技术的进步，已经凸显了生产嗜热几丁质酶的无限潜力。耐热几丁质酶随后用于不同领域，如生物修复、医学、农业和制药。

结论：本综述将提供有关几丁质酶、热稳定酶的生物技术潜力以及它们的生产方法和针对多种工业应用进行优化的信息。热稳定性几丁质酶的一些应用也有简要描述。