A. Pascoal would like to thank Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT, Portugal), Programa Operacional Pontencial Humano
(POPH) and European Union (EU) for his Postdoctoral grant SFRH/
BPD/91380/2012. The authors also are grateful to the Centre of
Molecular and Environmental Biology, funded by FCT, UID/BIA/
04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) and by the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI).
Lipases belong to the family of serine hydrolases, which in turn include various esterase enzymes (E.C.3.1.1.1).
They are involved in the cleavage of triacylglycerols to free fatty acids and glycerol in many important biological
processes, as for instance routine metabolism of dietary triglycerides to cell signalling and inflammation. Lipases
constitute a ubiquitous group of enzymes able to catalyse a number of different reactions, many of them of
industrial interest. Particularly, microbial lipases exhibit a wide range of industrial applications, namely in
pharmaceutical, food and detergents industry. The aim of this review is to summarize the recent achievements
illustrating the importance and the versatility of microbial lipases, including their involvement in infection
mechanisms.
