Staphylococcal lipases: Biotechnological applications

The production of extracellular lipases by staphylococcal species has been known for many years [1,2]. Interest in these lipases was originally stimulated by observations that certain pathogenic staphylococci possess lipolytic activity. There are several indications that they are involved in the release of free fatty acids in blood plasma and in skin colonization and related diseases [3,4]. In addition to this physiological importance, a research was stimulated by the potential use of staphylococcal lipases to synthesize many molecules with high value added. Recently, different staphylococcal lipases were isolated, purified and biochemically characterized. An increased interest of these lipases results from their potential in modern biotechnology. These new lipases are immobilized to be used in non aqueous media as biocatalyst to catalyze the transesterification, the alcoholysis and the esterification of the alcohols with organic acids. This review describes various applications of staphylococcal lipases in detergent, food, flavor, biopolymers, esters and antioxidant. Because of their biological significance and their increasing importance in biotechnology, a thorough understanding of staphylococcal lipases functioning is needed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.