Specificity of Mucor miehei lipase on methyl ester substrates

Abstract

Fatty acid methyl esters constitute a good substrate for the characterization of lipase typospecificity. In the present work, the hydrolytic action of lipase from Mucor miehei was studied. It was demonstrated that this lipase preferentially catalyses the hydrolysis of fatty acid methyl esters with small number of double bonds. It was also found that this lipase shows a specificity in the hydrolysis of fatty acid methyl esters with short aliphatic chain.