A thermostable esterase from Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis opening up a new family of bacterial lipolytic enzymes

► A new thermophilic enzyme called LipA3 has been expressed and purified. ► It falls into α/β hydrolase type. ► It is a monomeric thermostable esterase with optimal activity at 70 °C and pH 9.5. ► On the basis of enzymatic properties and sequence alignment we concluded that it is a new group of bacterial lipolytic enzymes. ► The group was assigned as Family XIV in chorological order.