BIOTECHNOLOG Y LETTERS Volume 18 No. 10 (October 1996) pp.1155-1160 Received as revised 14 August SOME FACTORS AFFECTING LIPASE PRODUCTION BY YEASTS AND FILAMENTOUS FUNGI Adamczak Marek, Wlodzimierz Bednarski* Olsztyn University of Agriculture and Technology, Institute of Food Biotechnology, 10-718 Olsztyn, Poland SUMMARY The highest activity of extracellular lipases was obtained after 24 h of cultivation of R. miehei NH in the medium with 0.5% beef tallow and medium working volume of 100 ml (2302U/ug of protein). For yeast after 36h of cultivation for Y.lipolytica 2, in 50 ml medium with 0.5% beef tallow (1796 U/ug of protein). Lipases activity increased by lowering the working volume of medium and decreasing the glucose content. INTRODUCTION Lipases (acylglycerol hydrolases (HAG), EC 3.1.1.3) are enzymes, biological function of which is to catalyze the hydrolysis of triacylglycerols to fatty acids, mono-, di-, and tri- acylglycerols, and glycerol. Lipases show optimum enzymatic activity at the oil-water interface contrary to other esterases which have the optimum activity in homogenous media with water soluble substrates (Marangoni, 1994; Martinelle and Hult, 1994). Lipase catalytic potentials are enormous. Particularly attractive are lipases of microbial origin, which are used in the food, dairy, detergent, cosmetic and tanning industries (Adamczak and Bednarski, 1994). Lipases are attractive because of their high stability in organic media and at high temperatures. They also have a unique ability to catalyze reactions with different substrates, often unnatural (Mukherjee, 1990; Harwood 1989). Another quality of lipases is their ability to catalyse stereoselective reactions. Coupling lipases with a wide range of substrates allows the opportunity for synthesis of optically pure pharmaceutical preparations, flavour compounds and other food additives (Holmberg, 1991). Most commercially available lipases are synthetized by fungi or yeasts. In this work, attention was paid to the effects of medium composition and cultivation conditions on the activity of extra- and intra-cellular lipases produced by some strains of filamentous fungi and yeasts. 1155