Alteration of lipase properties by protein engineering methods

Department of Biotechnology and Enzyme Catalysis, Institute of Biochemistry, Greifswald University, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 4, 17487 Greifswald, Germany +49 3834 86 4367 +49 3834 86 80066

^* uwe.bornscheuer@uni-greifswald.de

Abstract

Lipases are very important biocatalysts in lipid modification and a broad number of processes have already been established on large scale in industry. A current trend is to tailor-design enzymes for a given application and protein engineering methods are commonly used for this. In this dossier, basic principles of rational protein design and directed evolution are described together with recent examples for the successful application of these tools for the alteration of the substrate specificity, stereoselectivity, and stability of lipases.