Patent ID: 8313918

Claim:
A method of catalyzing an interesterification reaction to produce new triacylglycerides comprising the following steps: (a) providing a composition comprising a polypeptide having a 1,3-specific palmitase activity, said polypeptide being selected from the group consisting of isolated, synthetic or recombinant polypeptides having a 1,3-specific palmitase activity and said polypeptide either i. being encoded by a nucleic acid comprising a nucleic acid sequence having at least 85% sequence identity to full length SEQ ID NO:1, and wherein the nucleic acid encodes at least one polypeptide having 1,3-specific palmitase activity and the polypeptide having at least one amino acid residue change recited below in Table A, or ii. having at least 85% sequence identity to full length SEQ ID NO:2, and having at least one amino acid residue change recited in Table A, TABLE A Amino Original New Acid Amino Amino Residue Acid Acid 27 G Q 45 G L 54 S H 61 D A E 62 V A G 72 R E K S T 74 F I 83 V M 96 A I 98 G L 116 E A F H L Q Q R, H140R R S S T V 117 L R, I161L 120 K L 133 S A 147 I F 151 I A G H 160 P T 172 R Q 212 S R 213 K T 214 T V N R Y 215 G A H 216 A V C L or iii. having at least 85% sequence identity to full length of SEQ ID NO:2 and comprising at least one amino acid residue modification D61A; D61E; R72E; R72K; E116A; E116Q; E116R; E116T; E116V; S133A; I151G; I151A; V163R; or D164R (b) providing a mixture of triacylglycerides and free fatty acids; (c) treating the mixture of step (b) with the polypeptide under conditions wherein the polypeptide can catalyze exchange of free fatty acids with the acyl groups of triacylglycerides, thereby producing new triacylglycerides enriched in said fatty acids.