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Updated: May 11, 2026

Defining Substrate Specificities for Lipase and Phospholipase Candidates
Published on: November 23, 2016
Use of phospholipase A2 for the production of lysophospholipids
1Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Section Plant Physiology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Biological lipid extracts often contain small amounts of lysophospholipids (LPLs). Since different functions are emerging for LPLs in lipid metabolism and signalling, there is need for a reliable and cost-effective method for their identification. For this purpose, authentic LPL standards have to be synthesized from phosphoglycerides by PLA2 digestion in vitro. PLA2 specifically hydrolyzes the fatty acid ester linkage in the sn-2-position of phospholipids to liberate sn-2-linked fatty acids and the corresponding LPL. Due to this specificity, the reaction is also useful to analyze the positional distribution of fatty acids within membrane phospholipids. This chapter describes the in vitro generation of LPLs from diacyl-phosphoglycerides and their TLC analysis.
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