Phospholipase Clostridium perfringens

Zhang et al. studied a membrane reactor for the production of ceramide through sphingomyelin hydrolysis with phospholipase C from Clostridium perfringens. Ceramide has aroused considerable interest as an active component in both the pharmaceutical and the cosmetic industry. The enzymatic hydrolysis of sphingomyelin has proved a feasible method for the production... 

The available methods are suitable only for fractionation according to the basic moieties, whereas phosphatides differing in the lipid moieties are not separated from each other. Compounds which contain differing functional groups in the lipid moiety can be indirectly separated from each other using the following procedure [174] the enzyme phospholipase C from bacteria [Clostridium perfringens or Bacillus cereus) splits off phosphoryl ethanolamine and phosphoryl choline from the phosphatides. The lipophilic hydrolysis products can then be separated as acetyl derivatives (I, II, III) on adsorbent layers. 

The experiments of Haverkate and van Deenen (1964) indicate that phosphatidyl glycerol is broken down by the same enzymes that degrade lecithin. Phospholipases A, B, C (from Bacillus cereus, hut not from Clostridium perfringens) and D all act upon phosphatidyl glycerol with the formation of the expected hydrolysis products. 

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