| Esterases is a general reference of kinds of enzymes that catalyzes, hydrolyses and synthesizes ester bond. Upon the hydrolysis, they catalyze ester to produce glycerol and fatty acid; and upon the synthesis they dehydrate and condensate carboxyl group of acid and condensed hydroxyl of alcohol to produce esters and other aromatic substances. Esterases are widely found in animals, plants, and microorganisms. Microbial esterases distributed the most in bacteria, they widely presented in Streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, Cryptococcus neoformans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and many other bacteria. The current study on the relativity between esterase and bacterial virulence is just in the start-up phase. In this review the structure, classification, affecting mechanism, and genetic regulation of the esterase, as well as concrete advances in some typical bacterial esterases were briefly introduced. |
