Cover Picture: Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 6∕2018

Facile Enzymatic Synthesis of Phosphatidylthreonine Using an Engineered Phospholipase D Jasmina Damnjanović, Nozomi Matsunaga, Masaatsu Adachi, Hideo Nakano, and Yugo Iwasaki DOI: 10.1002/ejlt.201800089 One‐step synthesis of phosphatidylthreonine (PtdThr) is established, using the head group exchange of phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) with Threonine (Thr) catalyzed by an engineered phospholipase D (PLD). The enzyme accepts l ‐Thr, l ‐ allo ‐Thr and d ‐ allo ‐Thr to give the corresponding PtdThr, but not d ‐Thr. Docking simulation explains the enzyme's preference; l ‐, l ‐ allo ‐ and d ‐ allo ‐Thr bind to the active site in a productive orientation, whereas d ‐Thr in a non‐productive orientation.