Differential behaviour of Pseudomonas sp. 42A2 LipC, a lipase showing greater versatility than its counterpart LipA.

Growth of Pseudomonas sp. 42A2 on oleic acid releases polymerized hydroxy-fatty acids as a result of several enzymatic conversions that could involve one or more lipases. To test this hypothesis, the lipolytic system of strain Pseudomonas sp. 42A2 was analyzed, revealing the presence of at least an intracellular carboxylesterase and a secreted lipase. Consensus primers derived from a conserved region of bacterial lipase subfamilies I.1 and I.2 allowed isolation of two secreted lipase genes, lipA and lipC, highly homologous to those of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. Homologous cloning of the isolated lipA and lipC genes was performed in Pseudomonas sp. 42A2 for LipA and LipC over-expression. The overproduced lipases were further purified and characterized, both showing preference for medium fatty acid chain-length substrates. However, significant differences could be detected between LipA and LipC in terms of enzyme kinetics and behaviour pattern. Accordingly, LipA showed maximum activity at moderate temperatures, and displayed a typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics. On the contrary, LipC was more active at low temperatures and displayed partial interfacial activation, showing a shift in substrate specificity when assayed at different temperatures, and displaying increased activity in the presence of certain heavy metal ions. The versatile properties shown by LipC suggest that this lipase could be expressed in response to variable environmental conditions.

Efficient secretion of Bacillus subtilis lipase A in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by translational fusion to the Pir4 cell wall protein.

Both the secretion and the cell surface display of Bacillus subtilis lipase A (Lip A) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was investigated using different domains of the cell wall protein Pir4 as translational fusion partners. LipA gene minus its leader peptide was fused inframe in two places of PIR4 to achieve cell wall targeting, or substituting most of the PIR4 sequence, after the signal peptide and the Kex2 processed subunit I of Pir4 to achieve secretion to the growth medium. Expression of the recombinant fusion proteins was investigated in a standard and a glycosylation-deficient strain of S. cerevisiae, grown in selective or rich medium. Fusion proteins intended to be retained at the cell wall were secreted to the growth medium, most likely as result of the degradation of the Pir4 moiety containing the cell wall retention domain, giving low levels of lipase activity. However, the fusion intended for secretion was efficiently secreted in a percentage of close to 90% and remained stable even in rich medium at high cell density cultures, yielding values of over 400 IU of lipase activity per milliliter of cell supernatant. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of the efficient production, as a secreted protein, of lipase A of B. subtilis in baker's yeast.