Biochem. J.

(1999) 343, 177–183 (Printed in Great Britain) 177

Bacterial lipolytic enzymes : classification and properties

Jean Louis ARPIGNY and Karl-Erich JAEGER1
Lehrstuhl fu$ r Biologie der Mikroorganismen, Ruhr-Universita$ t Bochum, Universita$ tsstrasse 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany

Knowledge of bacterial lipolytic enzymes is increasing at a rapid enables us to predict (1) important structural features such as
and exciting rate. To obtain an overview of this industrially very residues forming the catalytic site or the presence of disulphide
important class of enzymes and their characteristics, we have bonds, (2) types of secretion mechanism and requirement for
collected and classified the information available from protein lipase-specific foldases, and (3) the potential relationship to other
and nucleotide databases. Here we propose an updated and enzyme families. This work will therefore contribute to a faster
extensive classification of bacterial esterases and lipases based identification and to an easier characterization of novel bacterial
mainly on a comparison of their amino acid sequences and some lipolytic enzymes.
fundamental biological properties. These new insights result in
the identification of eight different families with the largest being Key words : alignment, carboxylesterase, classification, lipase,
further divided into six subfamilies. Moreover, the classification structure.

INTRODUCTION talysis ; these have been particularly well documented for lipases
of eukaryotic origin [8].
Bacteria produce different classes of lipolytic enzyme, including Lipolytic enzymes are currently attracting enormous attention
carboxylesterases (EC 3.1.1.1), which hydrolyse small ester- because of their biotechnological potential [9–11]. Most of the
containing molecules at least partly soluble in water, true lipases lipases used in industry are microbial enzymes, of both fungal
(EC 3.1.1.3), which display maximal activity towards water- and bacterial origin. The great versatility of fungal lipases (from
insoluble long-chain triglycerides, and various types of phospho- genera such as Candida, Geotrichum, Rhizopus and Thermomyces)
lipase. This paper deals with the former two classes of enzyme. in biotechnology is illustrated extensively by Gandhi [12],
For a description of phospholipases we refer the reader to recent Benjamin and Pandey [13] and Pandey et al. [14]. Among
review articles [1,2]. bacterial lipases, attention has usually been focused on particular
Our knowledge of the structure of lipases and esterases has classes of enzymes such as the lipases from the genus Pseudo-
increased considerably in recent years through the elucidation of monas, which are especially interesting for biotechnology [15,16],
many gene sequences and the resolution of numerous crystal or esterases possibly involved in bacterial pathogenicity [17].
structures [3,4]. Efforts accomplished the classification of this Unfortunately, information on the relatedness of the numerous
large set of data and the identification families and subfamilies bacterial lipases and esterases studied so far is incomplete and
of lipolytic enzymes [5,6] (see also the ESTHER database scattered in the literature.
at http :\\meleze.eusam.inra.fr\cholinesterase). Many attempts Many new bacterial lipolytic enzymes have been studied since
have been made to identify sequence motifs conserved in lipolytic the publication of a comprehensive review article in 1994 [18].
enzymes originating from a broad variety of organisms, including However, no attempt has been undertaken to organize this
higher and lower vertebrates, invertebrates, fungi and bacteria, information. Some biochemical properties (such as the depen-
and to relate them to three-dimensional (3D) structural elements dence of activity on Ca#+ ions, pH and temperature) of the best
involved in substrate recognition and catalysis, and therefore studied families of lipases (from the genera Bacillus, Pseudomonas
being essential for the enzyme’s function. and Staphylococcus) have been summarized previously [15,16,
The structural superfamily of α\β-hydrolases defined by Ollis 18,19]. Usually, lipolytic enzymes are characterized by their
et al. [7] comprises a wide variety of enzymes whose activities rely ability to catalyse a broad range of reactions. Unfortunately, the
mainly on a catalytic triad usually formed by Ser, His and Asp wide diversity of methods used for lipase assays (such as the hy-
residues. This triad is functionally (but not structurally) identical drolysis of p-nitrophenyl esters, the pH-stat method and the
with that of trypsin and subtilisin. In the amino acid sequences monolayer technique) prevents a direct comparison of results on
of α\β-hydrolases the three residues follow the order Ser-Asp- substrate specificities. In an effort to standardize the measure-
His. The serine residue usually appears in the conserved penta- ments, comparative studies have been performed [20,21]. How-
peptide Gly-Xaa-Ser-Xaa-Gly. α\β-Hydrolases notably include ever, only a limited number of bacterial lipases [16] were
lipolytic enzymes, among which true lipases demand special investigated in these studies.
attention because their peculiar catalytic properties make them In the present paper, 53 sequences of bacterial lipases and
very attractive for industrial applications. Their marked pref- esterases are compared and classified according to conserved
erence for water-insoluble substrates and their adsorption on the sequence motifs and the biological properties of these enzymes.
oil\water interface before hydrolysis involve substantial con- Relevant information obtained from the 3D structures is also
formational changes of the enzyme’s architecture during ca- highlighted when available. This work presents an overview of

Abbreviations used : 3D, three-dimensional ; HSL, hormone-sensitive lipase ; PAF-AH, platelet-activating-factor acetylhydrolase.
1
To whom correspondence should be addressed (e-mail karl-erich.jaeger!ruhr-uni-bochum.de).

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178 J. L. Arpigny and K.-E. Jaeger

bacterial lipases and esterases currently known and permits the bridge are located in the vicinity of the catalytic His and Asp
classification of newly isolated lipolytic enzymes, thereby giving residues, they are believed to be important in the stabilization of
a hint about their general characteristics as a starting point to the active centre of these enzymes [28]. The two Cys residues of
their investigation. the Ps. fluorescens C9 lipase do not lie at equivalent positions and
no information is available on the possible existence of a
disulphide bridge in this molecule. Ps. fragi and Ps. Šulgaris
DATA SEARCH AND ANALYSIS lipases contain only one Cys residue.
Sequences were retrieved from protein and nucleotide databases Subfamily I.3 contains enzymes from at least two distinct
by means of the Entrez server at NCBI (http :\\www.ncbi.nlm. species : Ps. fluorescens and Serratia marcescens. These lipases
nih.gov\Entrez\), by using the keywords ‘ bacteria, archaea, have in common a higher molecular mass than lipases from
lipase, esterase, carboxylesterase ’. Sequence similarity searches subfamilies I.1 and I.2 (Ps. fluorescens, 50 kDa ; S. marcescens,
were performed with the BLAST 2.0 program [22]. Sequence 65 kDa) and the absence of an N-terminal signal peptide and of
comparison, sorting and alignment were obtained with the help Cys residues. The secretion of these enzymes occurs in one step
of the Match-Box server [23] and the CLUSTAL W program through a three-component ATP-binding-cassette transporter
[24]. The final presentation of results was prepared with the system [30,31].
MEGALIGN program from the Lasergene software package
(DNASTAR, Madison, WI, U.S.A.).
Lipases from Gram-positive organisms
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The various Bacillus lipases known have in common that an
alanine residue replaces the first glycine in the conserved penta-
True lipases peptide : Ala-Xaa-Ser-Xaa-Gly. However, the lipases from the
Pseudomonas lipases two mesophilic strains B. subtilis and B. pumilus stand apart
because they are the smallest true lipases known (approx. 20 kDa)
Bacterial true lipases were formerly ordered in the so-called and share very little sequence similarity (approx. 15 %) with the
Pseudomonas groups 1, 2 and 3 because Pseudomonas lipases other Bacillus and Staphylococcus lipases.
were probably the first to be studied and have a preponderant B. thermocatenulatus and B. stearothermophilus produce lipases
role in industry. Because some Pseudomonas species that produce with similar properties. Their molecular mass is approx. 45 kDa
important lipases have recently been renamed Burkholderia [25] and they display maximal activity at approx. pH 9.0 and 65 mC
and because many lipases originate from various other genera, [32,33].
we propose a revised classification of true lipases on the basis of Staphylococcal lipases are larger enzymes (approx. 75 kDa)
six subfamilies (Table 1). that are secreted as precursors and cleaved in the extracellular
The Burkholderia glumae lipase was for a long time the only medium by a specific protease, yielding a mature protein of
bacterial lipase with a known 3D structure [26], until the approx. 400 residues. The propeptide (207–267 residues) pre-
publication of the crystal structures of the lipases from Chromo- sumably acts as an intramolecular chaperone and facilitates the
bacterium Šiscosum [27] and from Burkholderia cepacia [28,29]. translocation of the lipase across the cell membrane [19]. Interest-
All these enzymes belong to family I.2 of true lipases. Very ingly, the lipase from Staphylococcus hyicus also displays a
recently the crystal structure of the Ps. aeruginosa lipase was remarkable phospholipase activity [34], which is unique among
solved (D. Lang, K. E. Jaeger and B. W. Dijkstra, unpublished true lipases.
work) providing the first structure in the lipase family I.1.
Since the publication of comparative studies on Pseudomonas
lipases [15,16], the sequences of lipases from several bacterial Other lipases
genera were reported that are obviously related to families I.1
and I.2 on the basis of amino acid sequence comparison (Table The lipases from Propionibacterium acnes (339 residues) [35] and
1 and Figure 1). Lipases from Vibrio cholerae, Acinetobacter from Streptomyces cinnamoneus (275 residues) [36] show signifi-
calcoaceticus, Ps. wisconsinensis and Proteus Šulgaris have mol- cant similarity to each other (39 % identity, 50 % similarity). The
ecular masses in the range 30–32 kDa and display a higher central region of these proteins (residues 50–150) is approx. 50 %
sequence similarity to the Ps. aeruginosa lipase. Enzymes from similar to lipases from B. subtilis and from subfamily I.2. No
subfamily I.2 are characterized by a slightly larger size (33 kDa) similarity was found between the Strep. cinnamoneus lipase and
owing to an insertion in the amino acid sequence forming an other Streptomyces lipases known so far.
anti-parallel double β-strand at the surface of the molecule
[26,28]. The Ps. luteola lipase possesses this insertion (residues
254–272 in the preprotein) and shows a high similarity to the
The GDSL family
Burkholderia enzymes, notably in this region (Figure 1). The enzymes grouped in family II do not exhibit the conventional
The expression in an active form of lipases belonging to pentapeptide Gly-Xaa-Ser-Xaa-Gly but rather display a Gly-
subfamilies I.1 and I.2 depends on a chaperone protein named Asp-Ser-(Leu) [GDS(L)] motif containing the active-site serine
lipase-specific foldase (‘ Lif ’). However, such specific helper residue (Figure 2). In these proteins this important residue lies
proteins have yet not been described for Ps. fluorescens C9, Ps. much closer to the N-terminus than in other lipolytic enzymes
fragi, Ps. Šulgaris and Ps. luteola. Both subfamilies also share [17]. We included in this family the esterase from Strep. scabies
important structural features, which are shown in Figure 1. because of its significant similarity to the Aeromonas hydrophila
Apart from the residues forming the catalytic triad, two aspartic esterase (30 %). Convincingly, this similarity is not restricted to
residues involved in the Ca#+-binding site described in the crystal the vicinity of functionally important residues but is distributed
structures are found at homologous positions in all sequences. over the entire sequence. As shown by its crystal structure [37],
Two cysteine residues forming a disulphide bridge are conserved the catalytic centre of Strep. scabies esterase has a particular
in a majority of sequences. Because the residues involved in the architecture in that it forms a catalytic dyad instead of a triad.
formation of both the Ca#+-binding site and the disulphide The acidic side chain, which usually stabilizes the positive charge

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 Bacterial lipolytic enzymes 179

Table 1 Families of lipolytic enzymes

Amino acid sequence similarities were determined with the program MEGALIGN (DNASTAR), with the first member of each family (subfamily) arbitrary set at 100 %. Abbreviations : OM, outer
membrane ; PHA, polyhydroxyalkanoate.

Similarity (%)

Family Subfamily Enzyme-producing strain Accession no. Family Subfamily Properties

I 1 Pseudomonas aeruginosa* D50587 100 True lipases

Pseudomonas fluorescens C9 AF031226 95
Vibrio cholerae X16945 57
Acinetobacter calcoaceticus X80800 43
Pseudomonas fragi X14033 40
Pseudomonas wisconsinensis U88907 39
Proteus vulgaris U33845 38
2 Burkholderia glumae* X70354 35 100
Chromobacterium viscosum* Q05489 35 100
Burkholderia cepacia* M58494 33 78
Pseudomonas luteola AF050153 33 77
3 Pseudomonas fluorescens SIK W1 D11455 14 100
Serratia marcescens D13253 15 51
4 Bacillus subtilis M74010 16 100
Bacillus pumilus A34992 13 80
5 Bacillus stearothermophilus U78785 15 100
Bacillus thermocatenulatus X95309 14 94
Staphylococcus hyicus X02844 15 29 Phospholipase
Staphylococcus aureus M12715 14 28
Staphylococcus epidermidis AF090142 13 26
6 Propionibacterium acnes X99255 14 100
Streptomyces cinnamoneus U80063 14 50
II (GDSL) Aeromonas hydrophila P10480 100 Secreted acyltransferase
Streptomyces scabies* M57297 36 Secreted esterase
Pseudomonas aeruginosa AF005091 35 OM-bound esterase
Salmonella typhimurium AF047014 28 OM-bound esterase
Photorhabdus luminescens X66379 28 Secreted esterase
III Streptomyces exfoliatus* M86351 100 Extracellular lipase
Streptomyces albus U03114 82 Extracellular lipase
Moraxella sp. X53053 33 Extracellular esterase 1
IV (HSL) Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius X62835 100 Esterase
Pseudomonas sp. B11-1 AF034088 54 Lipase
Archaeoglobus fulgidus AE000985 48 Carboxylesterase
Alcaligenes eutrophus L36817 40 Putative lipase
Escherichia coli AE000153 36 Carboxylesterase
Moraxella sp. X53868 25 Extracellular esterase 2
V Pseudomonas oleovorans M58445 100 PHA-depolymerase
Haemophilus influenzae U32704 41 Putative esterase
Psychrobacter immobilis X67712 34 Extracellular esterase
Moraxella sp. X53869 34 Extracellular esterase 3
Sulfolobus acidocaldarius AF071233 32 Esterase
Acetobacter pasteurianus AB013096 20 Esterase
VI Synechocystis sp. D90904 100 Carboxylesterases
Spirulina platensis S70419 50
Pseudomonas fluorescens* S79600 24
Rickettsia prowazekii Y11778 20
Chlamydia trachomatis AE001287 16
VII Arthrobacter oxydans Q01470 100 Carbamate hydrolase
Bacillus subtilis P37967 48 p-Nitrobenzyl esterase
Streptomyces coelicolor CAA22794 45 Putative carboxylesterase
VIII Arthrobacter globiformis AAA99492 100 Stereoselective esterase
Streptomyces chrysomallus CAA78842 43 Cell-bound esterase
Pseudomonas fluorescens SIK W1 AAC60471 40 Esterase III
* Lipolytic enzyme with known 3D structure.

of the active-site histidine residue, is replaced by the backbone lies three positions upstream of the active-site histidine [38]. Both
carbonyl of the residue located three positions upstream of the enzymes have an α\β tertiary fold substantially different from
histidine itself, namely Trp-315. Interestingly, a second enzyme that of the α\β-hydrolase family and share conserved sequence
displaying the GDSL motif, the α1 subunit of the platelet- blocks with at least four other bacterial esterases, as shown in
activating-factor acetylhydrolase (α1PAF-AH) from bovine Figure 2.
brain, shows a catalytic triad in which an aspartic residue also For the Aeromonas hydrophila esterase, Brumlik and Buckley

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180 J. L. Arpigny and K.-E. Jaeger

Figure 1 Alignment of amino acid sequences of true lipases from subfamilies I.1 and I.2 (see Table 1)
Symbols : $, amino acid residues belonging to the catalytic triad ; #, cysteine residues forming the disulphide bridge ; =, aspartic residues involved in the Ca2+-binding site. Cysteine residues
in Ps. fluorescens C9, Ps. fragi and Proteus vulgaris lipases are underlined.

Figure 2 Blocks of sequence conserved in the GDSL esterase family (family II ; see Table 1)
Symbols : $, amino acid residues belonging to the catalytic triad ; #, location of the active-site Asp-116 (position 134 in the precursor) proposed by Brumlik and Buckley [39] for the Aeromonas
hydrophila enzyme.

[39] proposed that the active-site aspartic residue is Asp-116 common architecture of their catalytic triad (or dyad) in addition
located in block III (Figure 2), arguing that the Asp-116 Asn to the similarity of their sequences.
mutant is completely inactive. However, both the absence of Another interesting feature of the GDSL esterases from Ps.
activity of the enzyme and its severely impaired secretion, which aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium and Photorhabdus lumin-
was also reported, might be due to the misfolding of the protein escens is an additional C-terminal domain that encompasses
in the periplasm and to its subsequent proteolytic degradation approximately one-third of their entire sequence and is similar to
without implying that Asp-116 belongs to the catalytic triad. that of a newly identified family of autotransporting bacterial
However, it was shown in the above-mentioned bovine α1PAF- virulence factors ([40,41], and S. Wilhelm, J. Tommassen and
AH [38] that a second conserved aspartic residue located three K.-E. Jaeger, unpublished work). In these proteins the C-terminal
positions upstream from the active histidine (Figure 2) can take domain is presumably folded into approx. 12 amphipathic
part in the active site and that this third acidic residue is not β-sheets forming an aqueous pore in the outer membrane. The
essential for the enzyme’s function, as in the Strep. scabies catalytic N-terminal domain transits through this pore and is in
esterase [37]. Obviously, more structural information is needed some instances released in the extracellular medium by a specific
to establish whether these enzymes share a common fold and a proteolytic process.

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 Bacterial lipolytic enzymes 181

Figure 3 Sequence blocks conserved in families IV, V and VI (see Table 1)

Symbol : $, amino acid residues belonging to the catalytic triad. Compare the motifs surrounding the active-site serine residue.

Family III comparative study of these enzymes would therefore be very

valuable for the determination of the distinctive properties of this
This family of lipases was identified primarily by Cruz et al. [43]
family of hydrolases.
and mentioned by Wei et al. [44], who solved the 3D structure of
the Strep. exfoliatus (M11) lipase. This enzyme displays the
canonical fold of α\β-hydrolases and contains a typical catalytic
Family V
triad. It also shows approx. 20 % amino acid sequence identity
with the intracellular and plasma isoforms of the human PAF- Like proteins in the HSL family, enzymes grouped in family V
AH. These PAF-AHs are monomer proteins, in contrast with the originate from mesophilic bacteria (Pseudomonas oleoŠorans,
heterotrimeric PAF-AH from bovine brain. Their tertiary fold Haemophilus influenzae, Acetobacter pasteurianus) as well as
was modelled on the basis of the Strep. exfoliatus lipase structure from cold-adapted (Moraxella sp., Psy. immobilis) or heat-
[44]. Their active-site aspartic residue, identified primarily by adapted (Sulfolobus acidocaldarius) organisms. They share sig-
site-directed mutagenesis, was shown to be located in the sequence nificant amino acid sequence similarity (20–25 %) to various
at a position non-equivalent to that found in the Strep. exfoliatus bacterial non-lipolytic enzymes, namely epoxide hydrolases,
enzyme, again underlining the great functional versatility of the dehalogenases and haloperoxidase, which also possess the typical
α\β-hydrolase scaffold. α\β-hydrolase fold and a catalytic triad [49,50]. On the basis of
the crystal structure of the Xanthobacter autotrophicus dehalo-
genase [49], the tertiary fold and the active site residues of the
The hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) family Psy. immobilis lipase were predicted by molecular modelling [51].
A number of bacterial enzymes (family IV) display a striking The sequence patterns conserved around the active-site residues
amino acid sequence similarity to the mammalian HSL [45]. of family V enzymes are presented in Figure 3.
Figure 3 shows sequence blocks that are highly conserved in HSL
and six lipolytic enzymes from distantly related prokaryotes. The
proposed active-site residues, which were inferred from the three-
Family VI
dimensional model of the human HSL [46], are also highlighted. With a molecular mass in the range 23–26 kDa, the enzymes
The mammalian HSL seems to derive from a catalytic domain, presented here are among the smallest esterases known. The 3D
homologous with the bacterial enzymes, merged with an ad- structure of the Ps. fluorescens carboxylesterase was solved [52].
ditional N-terminal domain and a regulatory module inserted in The active form of this enzyme is a dimer. The subunit has the
the central part of the sequence. The relatively high activity at α\β-hydrolase fold and a classical Ser-Asp-His catalytic triad.
low temperature (less than 15 mC) retained by HSL and the lipase This carboxylesterase hydrolyses small substrates with a broad
from Moraxella sp. [47] was once thought to derive from the specificity and displays no activity towards long-chain tri-
conserved sequence motifs of these enzymes [48]. However, the glycerides [53]. Very little is known about the other enzymes in
marked sequence similarity (Table 1 and Figure 3) between this family. Their amino acid sequences were derived from
esterases from psychrophilic (Moraxella sp., Psychrobacter whole-genome sequences except that for the Spirulina platensis
immobilis), mesophilic (Escherichia coli, Alcaligenes eutrophus) esterase, which was cloned specifically [54]. The enzymes in
and thermophilic (Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius, Archeoglobus family VI display approx. 40 % sequence similarity to eukaryotic
fulgidus) origins indicates that temperature adaptation is not lysophospholipases (Ca#+-independent phospholipases A ). Their
#
responsible for such an extensive sequence conservation. A major conserved sequence motifs are shown in Figure 3.

# 1999 Biochemical Society

182 J. L. Arpigny and K.-E. Jaeger

Family VII REFERENCES

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This work was supported by EC grant BIO4-CT97-5023. 249–253

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 Bacterial lipolytic enzymes 183

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Received 16 April 1999/25 June 1999 ; accepted 27 July 1999

# 1999 Biochemical Society