Structure and Functionality of Lipases

Lipases hydrolyze triglycerides giving rise to free fatty acids and glycerol. Assays for lipase activity include a wide range of techniques spectrophotometry, 

3 Three Dimensional Structure of Lipases and Lipolytic Mechanism 

Crystallization of lipases from several sources had been reported (Misset et al. 1994 Jaeger et al. 1999). Mammalian, fungal and bacterial lipases had been crystallized and since 1990 lipase structure has been determined by X-ray all of them, except pancreatic lipase, where of bacterial origin (Jaeger and Reetz 1998). These enzymes have molecular weights which vary between 20 and 60 kDa. They have very similar folds despite a lack of sequence similarity (Smith et al. 1992). A comparison with X-ray structure of other hydrolytic enzymes revealed that all these enzymes share the same folding patter. Because all of them are hydrolytic enzymes, the common folding pattern was named a/(3 hydrolase fold (Ollis et al. 1992). The a/(3 

---