Bioinformatics Analysis Suggests That SE_1780 Protein From Staphylococcus Epidermidis May Be a Member of the Fph Family of Lipases

The Protein Data Bank entry for protein SE_1780 from Staphylococcus epidermidis lists the function as unknown. We leveraged the framework outlined in the Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Laboratory and used bioinformatics tools to ascertain the function of the protein. Based on our analysis, we posit that SE_1780 is a lipase of the α/β hydrolase family with a proposed active site catalytic triad composed of Ser 144, Asp 235, and His 269. Further we identified the lipase FphD as having significant sequence identity to protein SE_1780 and suggest that the protein is a member of the Fph family of lipases from S. epidermidis .