Properties and structures of fatty acid hydroperoxide lyase

Fatty acid hydroperoxide lyase (HPOL) is an enzyme that cleaves fatty acid hydroperoxides to form a short chain aldehyde and an oxo-acid. The enzyme is widely distributed in the plant kingdom. Because short chain aldehydes have fungicidal activity and can act as repellents of certain insects and attractants for insect predators, HPOL is thought to be involved in plant defense mechanisms. Recently, HPOL has been purified from several plants and its biochemical properties determined. Furthermore, molecular cloning of an HPOL gene from bell pepper has been accomplished. Determination of the primary amino acid sequence showed that HPOL defines a novel subfamily of cytochrome P450s.