Clostridium kluyveri fatty acid synthesis

Stadtman, E. R. and H. A. Barker Fatty acid synthesis by enzyme preparations of Clostridium kluyveri. VI. Reactions of acyl phosphates. J. Biol. Chem. 184, 769-793 (1950). 

Stadtman, E. R. and Barker, H. A. (1949) Fatty acid synthesis by enzyme preparations of Clostridium kluyveri. II. The aerobic oxidation of ethanol and butyrate with the formation of acetyl phosphate. J. Biol. Chem. 180, 1095-1116 Chantrenne, H. and Lipmann, F. (1950) Coenzyme A dependence and acetyl donor function of the pyruvate-formed exchange system, ibid. 187, 757. 

Much of our fundamental knowledge of fatty acid synthesis has been derived from studies with cell-free preparations of Clostridium kluyveri. Barker gives an excellent summary of this and allied work in a recent article. 

Lynen had studied chemistry in Munich under Wieland his skill as a chemist led to the successful synthesis of a number of fatty acyl CoA derivatives which proved to be substrates in the catabolic pathway. Many of these C=0 or C=C compounds had characteristic UV absorption spectra so that enzyme reactions utilizing them could be followed spectrophotometrically. This technique was also used to identify and monitor the flavoprotein and pyridine nucleotide-dependent steps. Independent evidence for the pathway was provided by Barker, Stadtman and their colleagues using Clostridium kluyveri. Once the outline of the degradation had been proposed the individual steps of the reactions were analyzed very rapidly by Lynen, Green, and Ochoa s groups using in the main acetone-dried powders from mitochondria, which, when extracted with dilute salt solutions, contained all the enzymes of the fatty acid oxidation system. 

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