Lipophilic Malassezia species may induce catheter-associated sepsis in premature neonates and immunocompromised patients receiving parenteral lipid emulsions. To assess the participation of lipolytic enzymes in the pathogenesis of this yeast, we cloned a gene encoding the enzyme. A lipolytic enzyme in the culture supernatant of Malassezia pachydermatis was purified 210-fold to homogeneity. The enzyme showed high esterase activity toward p-nitrophenyl octanoate. The cDNA encoding the enzyme was cloned using a degenerate oligonucleotide primer constructed from the N-terminal amino acid sequence. The cDNA consisted of 1582 bp, including an open reading frame encoding 470 amino acids. The first 19 amino acids and the following 13 amino-acid sequence were predicted to be the signal peptides for secretion and prosequence, respectively. The predicted molecular mass of the 438-amino acid mature protein was 48 kDa. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence revealed that it contains the consensus motif (Gly-X-Ser-X-Gly), which is conserved among lipolytic enzymes. Homology investigations showed that the enzyme has similarities principally with 11 lipases produced by Candida albicans (29-34% identity) and some other yeast lipases.