identifier: traitmech:000139
label: lipase activity
definition: A physiological enzyme-activity phenotype in which a cell produces active
  lipases that hydrolyze triglycerides at lipid-water interfaces.
definition_source: DOI:10.22207/JPAM.16.4.27
trait_category: PHYSIOLOGY
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: PROPOSED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1000059
synonyms:
- synonym_text: lipase production
  synonym_type: RELATED_SYNONYM
  source: DOI:10.22207/JPAM.16.4.27
- synonym_text: lipolytic activity
  synonym_type: RELATED_SYNONYM
  source: DOI:10.1016/j.mex.2018.01.004
evidence:
- reference: DOI:10.22207/JPAM.16.4.27
  snippet: Lipase-producing bacteria were isolated using tributyrin agar as a selective
    medium
  notes: Savalia and Dungrechiya used tributyrin agar to isolate lipase-producing
    bacteria from waste samples.
- reference: DOI:10.1016/j.mex.2018.01.004
  snippet: to identify lipase producers. The addition of calcium and magnesium ions
    can provide an easier screening procedure for selection of lipolytic bacterial
    strains
  notes: Carrazco-Palafox et al. optimized modified tributyrin agar as a microbial
    lipolytic-activity screen.
canonical_examples:
- taxon_id: NCBITaxon:1408
  taxon_label: Bacillus pumilus
  note: Bacillus pumilus S113 was isolated as the strongest lipase producer in a tributyrin-agar
    screen.
  reference: DOI:10.22207/JPAM.16.4.27
discussions:
- discussion_id: lipase-activity-xref-gap
  prompt: Resolve an exact external ontology class for lipase activity before adding
    a TraitRecord xref.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: GO:0016298 denotes the lipase molecular function rather than the organism-level
    lipase production phenotype, so it is too scope-shifted for an equivalent TraitRecord
    xref.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-09-11'
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-09-11T00:00:00Z'
  curator: codex
  action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID
  changes: Minted lipase activity as a DOI-backed TraitRecord after a repository-wide
    duplicate review covering ignored and hidden files; METPO has no exact lipase
    activity class yet.
  llm_assisted: true