identifier: traitmech:000156
label: carboxylesterase activity
definition: A physiological enzyme-activity phenotype in which a cell produces active
  carboxylesterase enzymes that hydrolyze carboxylic esters to alcohols and carboxylates.
definition_source: https://iubmb.qmul.ac.uk/enzyme/EC3/1/1/1.html
trait_category: PHYSIOLOGY
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: PROPOSED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1000059
synonyms:
- synonym_text: carboxylic-ester hydrolase activity
  synonym_type: EXACT_SYNONYM
  source: https://iubmb.qmul.ac.uk/enzyme/EC3/1/1/1.html
evidence:
- reference: https://iubmb.qmul.ac.uk/enzyme/EC3/1/1/1.html
  snippet: 'Reaction: A carboxylic ester + H_{2}O = an alcohol + a carboxylate'
  notes: The NC-IUBMB EC 3.1.1.1 entry defines carboxylesterase by its accepted reaction,
    grounding the ester-hydrolase activity named by the organism-level carboxylesterase
    phenotype.
- reference: DOI:10.1128/JCM.43.8.3713-3717.2005
  snippet: Alkaline phosphatase, esterase (C4), esterase lipase (C8), leucine arylamidase,
    acid phosphatase, and naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase were clearly positive
  notes: Otsuka et al. detected clear esterase (C4) and esterase lipase (C8) API ZYM
    reactions in the five Corynebacterium resistens isolates they characterized, supporting
    this as a directly assayed bacterial carboxylesterase activity phenotype.
canonical_examples:
- taxon_id: NCBITaxon:258224
  taxon_label: Corynebacterium resistens
  note: Otsuka et al. detected clear esterase (C4) and esterase lipase (C8) API ZYM
    reactions in Corynebacterium resistens isolates.
  reference: DOI:10.1128/JCM.43.8.3713-3717.2005
discussions:
- discussion_id: carboxylesterase-activity-xref-gap
  prompt: Resolve an exact external ontology class for carboxylesterase activity before
    adding a TraitRecord xref.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: GO:0106435 denotes carboxylesterase molecular function rather than the
    organism-level carboxylesterase production phenotype, so it is appropriate as
    a causal-node grounding rather than an equivalent TraitRecord xref.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-09-12'
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-09-12T03:42:43Z'
  curator: codex
  action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID
  changes: Minted carboxylesterase activity as a URL/DOI-backed TraitRecord after
    a repository-wide duplicate review covering ignored and hidden files; METPO has
    no exact carboxylesterase activity class yet.
  llm_assisted: true