A novel thermo-responsive phospholipase A1 with high selectivity and efficiency in enzymatic oil degumming

The limited availability of phospholipase A 1 (PLA 1 ) has posed significant challenges in enzymatic degumming. In this study, a novel PLA1 (UM2) was introduced to address this limitation, which had a unique thermo-responsive ability to switch phospholipase and lipase activities in response to temperature variations. Remarkably, UM2 displayed an unprecedented selectivity under optimized conditions, preferentially hydrolyzing phospholipids over triacylglycerols—a specificity superior to that of commercial PLA 1 . Moreover, UM2 demonstrated high efficiency in hydrolyzing phospholipids with a predilection for phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). A practical application of UM2 on crude flaxseed oil led to a dramatic reduction in phosphorus content, plummeting from an initial 384.06 mg/kg to 4.38 mg/kg. Broadening its industrial applicability, UM2 effectively performed enzymatic degumming for other distinct crude vegetable oils with a unique phospholipid composition. Collectively, these results highlighted the promising application of UM2 in the field of oil degumming.