Effect of solvent polarity on enzymatic function of poly [(<i>N</i>-acylimino)ethylene] modified lipase

Abstract

The effects of the polarity of various water-immiscible organic solvents on the enzymatic esterification activities of three modified Candida cylindracea lipases, which were prepared by the chemical modification of lipase with poly[(N-acetylimino)ethylene] (2a), poly[(N-propionylimino)ethylene] (2b) and poly[(N-isobutyrylimino)ethylene] (2c), were examined and their enzymatic activities were tried to correlate to the logarithm of the partition coefficient of the solvent between water and 1-octanol (log P). It was found that although the activity increased with increasing the hydrophobicity of the solvent and with increasing the hydrophobicity of the N-substituent of 2, a great rate enhancement of the enzymatic activity was achieved in benzene and toluene by the chemical modification by 2b or 2c, while unmodified lipase and 2a-modified one were almost inactive in them. Moreover, the effect of water concentration in organic solvent was investigated.