Novel Lysophospholipase A Secreted by Legionella pneumophila

We show that Legionella pneumophila possesses lysophospholipase A activity, which releases fatty acids from lysophosphatidylcholine. The NH(2)-terminal sequence of the enzyme contained FGDSLS, corresponding to a catalytic domain in a recently described group of lipolytic enzymes. Culture supernatants of a L. pneumophila pilD mutant lost the ability to cleave lysophosphatidylcholine.