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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Defining Substrate Specificities for Lipase and Phospholipase Candidates
Published on: November 23, 2016
Functional-Based Screening Methods for Detecting Esterase and Lipase Activity Against Multiple Substrates
Dolores Reyes-Duarte1, Cristina Coscolín2, Mónica Martínez-Martínez2
1Departamento de Procesos y Tecnología, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Cuajimalpa (UAM-C), CDMX, México. dreyes@correo.cua.uam.mx.
Abstract:
Functional screens have been extensively used for searching native enzymes or mutant variants in clone libraries. Esterases and lipases are the most retrieved enzymes, because they are within the more demanded industrial enzymes and because a number of simple and generic screening methods can be applied for their screen. Here, we describe the use of a generic pH indicator assay protocol which unambiguously allows detecting in high-throughput manner esterase and lipase activity and quantifying specific activities using an ester concentration above 0.5 mM. The described method is simple and generic to allow the selection of esterases and lipases targeting desired esters.
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