Crystallographic data and circular dichroism spectrum of lipase from Geotrichum candidum link

Lipid metabolism in fungi

So far, reviews that have appeared on fungal lipids present data mainly on the lipid composition of these organisms and the influence of lipids on their physiology. These reviews provide little information about the enzymes of lipid metabolism in these organisms and it is assumed, by most workers, that lipid synthesis in all fungi takes place as in Saccharomyces cervesiae, the only fungus in which the complete pathways of phospholipid biosynthesis have been worked out. During the last few years, literature has accumulated on lipid metabolic enzymes of other fungi, as investigators became increasingly interested in this area of research. The present review, after an introduction, will be divided into different sections and each section will deal, comparatively, with various aspects of fungal lipid metabolism and physiology. This review will, therefore, bring out the differences or similarities of lipid metabolism in diverse fungal species.

Porcine pancreatic lipase. Completion of the primary structure

The complete primary structure of a lipase (triacylglycerol hydrolase; EC 3.1.1.3) is presented for the first time. The porcine pancreatic enzyme which was investigated is composed of a single chain of 449 amino acids. Upon fragmentation by CNBr, five peptides were obtained. The sequence of four of them (CN I-CN IV) has already been published. The present report deals with the arrangement of the 142 amino acids of the C-terminal peptide CN V, thus completing the analysis of the whole molecule. Special problems resulting from incomplete cleavage of some peptide bonds in CN V and aggregation of large peptides were overcome using Sephadex filtration of succinylated derivatives in 50% acetic acid, automated sequence analysis of peptide mixtures and subdigestion of material which could not be directly resolved. No obvious homology was found when the sequence of porcine lipase was compared with other protein, including pancreatic phospholipase A2 and colipase from the same species. However, a few similarities which might be significant were detected between the environment and relative position of certain half cystines in lipase and colipase, as well as between two tyrosine-rich regions existing in both proteins.