Bacterial lipolytic enzymes: classification and properties

Knowledge of bacterial lipolytic enzymes is increasing at a rapid and excit ing rate. To obtain an overview of this industrially very important class o f enzymes and their characteristics, we have collected and classified the i nformation available from protein and nucleotide databases. Here we propose an updated and extensive classification of bacterial esterases and lipases based mainly on a comparison of their amino acid sequences and some fundam ental biological properties. These new insights result in the identificatio n of eight different families with the largest being further divided into s ix subfamilies. Moreover, the classification enables us to predict (1) impo rtant structural features such as residues forming the catalytic site or th e presence of disulphide bonds, (2) types of secretion mechanism and requir ement for lipase-specific foldases, and (3) the potential relationship to o ther enzyme families. This work will therefore contribute to a faster ident ification and to an easier characterization of novel bacterial lipolytic en zymes.