a novel lipase from a newly - discovered strain of pseudomonas alcaligenes microorganism having an optimum ph for activity of about 10 ± 0 . 5 ; an optimum temperature for activity of about 45 ° to 55 ° c . ; an optimum ph for stability of about 7 . 0 ± 0 . 5 ; a molecular weight as measured by sds - page of about 3 . 0 × 10 4 ; and chemical stability for at least a 60 day mean half - life in the presence of a 10 percent solution of polyoxyethylene lauryl ether in 25 millimolar aqueous calcium chloride . also claimed is a biologically pure culture of the microorganism , and a method for the production of the lipase . also claimed is a lipase characterized by containing an n - terminal amino acid sequence which is gly - leu - phe - gly - pro - ser - gly - tyr - thr - lys - thr - lys - tyr - pro - ile .