[Soft Matter Café] A neutron reflectivity approach to investigate factors regulating the substrate specificities of phospholipases

Phospholipases (PLAs) are lipolytic enzymes that hydrolyze phospholipid substrates at specific ester bonds. They are widespread in nature and play very diverse roles right from signal transduction and lipid mediator production to membrane phospholipid homeostasis. Phospholipases vary considerably in their structure, function, regulation, and mode of action therefore a deeper understanding of their dynamics and kinetics can be very crucial. The present study encompasses employing neutron reflectivity including other physical/chemical techniques to better understand the principles underlying the substrate specificity of phospholipases. We here, studied in detail the effect of the acyl chain length and unsaturation of phospholipids on their hydrolysis by type A1-PLA1 (sourced from Aspergillus oryzae), that was expressed in E.Coli and purified in its pure form thus allowing us to understand the key factors that regulate its activity.

About the speaker: Giacomo Corucci graduated in Molecular and Applied Biology at Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM Ancona) and his Master thesis was focused on “RECOMBINANT CROTAMINE PRODUCTION AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS BY SMALL-ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING OF ITS INTERACTIONS WITH MODEL MEMBRANE”. Later, he moved to Grenoble, France, for his PhD studies.