Characterizing LipR from Pseudomonas sp. R0-14 and Applying in Enrichment of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids from Algal Oil

In this study, Pseudomonas R0-14, which was isolated from Arctic soil samples, showed a clear halo when grown on M9 medium agarose plates containing olive oil-rhodamine B as substrate, suggesting that it expressed putative lipase(s). A putative lipase gene, lipR, was cloned from R0-14 by genome walking and Touchdown PCR. lipR encodes a 562-amino-acid polypeptide showing a typical α/β hydrolase structure with a catalytic triad consisting of Ser₁₅₃-Asp₂₀₂-His₂₆₀ and one α-helical lid (residues 103-113). A phylogenetic analysis revealed that LipR belongs to the lipase subfamily I.3. LipR was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli, purified, and biochemically characterized. Recombinant LipR exhibited its maximum activity towards p-nitrophenyl butyrate at pH 8.5 and 60℃ with a K_m of 0.37 mM and a k_cat of 6.42 s^-1. It retained over 90% of its original activity after incubation at 50℃ for 12 h. In addition, LipR was activated by Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Ba²⁺, and Sr²⁺, while strongly inhibited by Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mn²⁺, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Moreover, it showed a certain tolerance to organic solvents, including acetonitrile, isopropanol, acetone, methanol, and tert-butanol. When algal oil was hydrolyzed by LipR for 24 h, there was an enrichment of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid (1.22%, 1.65-fold), docosapentaenoic acid (21.24%, 2.04-fold), and docosahexaenoic acid (36.98%, 1.33-fold), and even a certain amount of diacylglycerols was also produced. As a result, LipR has great prospect in industrial applications, especially in food and/or cosmetics applications.