Enzymes Fatty acid synthase

The reactions of fatty acid synthesis all occur on one enzyme—fatty acid synthase.1 This enzyme has multiple catalytic activities on one polypeptide chain. The intermediates of the reaction are not released until... 

The processes of fatty acid biosynthesis are catalysed by the enzyme fatty acid synthase. In animals, this is a multifunctional protein containing all of the catalytic activities required, whereas in... 

Fatty acid synthesis is catalysed in animals by the enzyme fatty acid synthase, which is a multifunctional protein containing all of the catalytic activities required. Bearing in mind the necessity to provide a specific binding site for the various substrates involved, and then the fairly complex sequence of reactions carried out, it raises the question of just how it is possible for this process to be achieved at the enzymic level. Nature has devised an elaborate but satisfyingly simple answer to this problem. 

The section of the molecule discussed so far represents a functional unit. In the cell, it is produced from pantothenate. The molecule also occurs in a protein-bound form as 4 -phosphopantetheine in the enzyme fatty acid synthase (see p. 168). In coenzyme A, however, it is bound to 3, 5 -adenosine diphosphate. 

The remaining series of reactions of fatty acid synthesis in eukary-l otes is catalyzed by the multifunctional, dimeric enzyme, fatty acid synthase. Each fatty acid synthase monomer is a multicatalytic polypeptide with seven different enzymic activities plus a domain that covalently binds a molecule of 4 -phosphopantetheine. [Note 4-Phosphopantetheine, a derivative of the vitamin pantothenic add (see p. 379), carries acetyl and acyl units on its terminal thiol (-SH)j group during fatty acid synthesis. It also is a component of 00-enzyme A.] In prokaryotes, fatty acid synthase is a multienzyme complex, and the 4 -phosphopantetheine domain is a separate protein, referred to as the acyl carrier protein (ACP). ACP is used below to refer to the phosphopantetheine-binding domain of the eukaryotic fatty acid synthase molecule. The reaction numbers in1 brackets below refer to Figure 16.9. [Note The enzyme activities listed are actually separate catalytic domains present in each mulf-1 catalytic fatty acid synthase monomer.]... 

The biosynthesis of polyketides is analogous to the formation of long-chain fatty acids catalyzed by the enzyme fatty acid synthase (FAS). These FASs are multi-enzyme complexes that contain numerous enzyme activities. The complexes condense coenzyme A (CoA) thioesters (usually acetyl, propionyl, or malonyl) followed by a ketoreduction, dehydration, and enoylreduction of the [3-keto moiety of the elongated carbon chain to form specific fatty acid products. These subsequent enzyme activities may or may not be present in the biosynthesis of polyketides. 

Another major lipogenic enzyme, fatty acid synthase, is also regulated in the liver by nutritional status, insulin, glucagon and T3. Wilson et al. [78] have found that stimulation of fatty acid synthase requires both thyroid hormones and insulin (40-fold stimulation), whereas T3 or insulin alone had much smaller effects (2.5.-fold). Experiments performed in the presence or the absence of puromycin suggest that a common T3-induced peptide intermediate regulates the level of both fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme mRNAs. 

Chang, S.-I. Hammes, G.G. Structure and mechanism of action of a multifunction enzyme fatty acid synthase. Acc. Chem. Res. 1990, 23, 363-369. 

The enzyme system that catalyzes the synthesis of saturated long-chain fatty acids from acetyl CoA, malonyl CoA, and NADPH is called the/ditv acid synthase. The synthase is actually a complex of distinct enzymes, fatty acid synthase complex in bacteria is readily dissociated into individual enzymes when the cells are broken apart. The availability of these isolated enzymes has helped biochemists elucidate the steps in fatty acid synthesis (Table 22.2). In fact, the reactions leading to fatty acid synthesis in higher organisms are very much like those of bacteria. 

Fatty acids have predominantly even numbers of carbon atoms because they are effectively formed from acetyl (C2) units, which are derived from glucose in the presence of various enzymes, coenzymes and carrier proteins. An overall scheme for saturated fatty acid biosynthesis is presented in Fig. 2.13, in which it can be seen that the first step is the formation of acetyl coenzyme A (often abbreviated to acetyl-CoA). One molecule ofacetyl-CoA undergoes addition of CO, to form malonyl-CoA, while the acetyl group on another molecule is transferred to an enzyme (fatty acid synthase). The malonyl unit (C3) is added to the enzyme-bound acetyl unit, which produces a butyryl group following loss of C02, dehydration and reduction. Six further steps of combined malonyl addition, decarboxylation, dehydration and reduction occur to yield palmitate (C16). Higher acids are built from palmitate in a similar... 

Camassei, F. D., Cozza, R., Acquaviva, A., Jenkner, A., Rava, L., Gareri, R., Donfrancesco, A., Bosman, C., Vadala, P., Hadjistilianou, T. and Boldrini, R., Expression of the lipogenic enzyme fatty acid synthase (FAS) in retinoblastoma and its correlation with tumor aggressiveness, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 44 (2003a) 2399-2403. 

In animals, the enzymes of fatty acid synthesis are components of one long polypeptide chain, the fatty acid synthase, whereas no similar association exists for the degradative enzymes. (Plants and bacteria employ separate enzymes to carry out the biosynthetic reactions.)... 

Rittenberg and Bloch showed in the late 1940s that acetate units are the building blocks of fatty acids. Their work, together with the discovery by Salih Wakil that bicarbonate is required for fatty acid biosynthesis, eventually made clear that this pathway involves synthesis of malonyl-CoA. The carboxylation of acetyl-CoA to form malonyl-CoA is essentially irreversible and is the committed step in the synthesis of fatty acids (Figure 25.2). The reaction is catalyzed by acetyl-CoA carboxylase, which contains a biotin prosthetic group. This carboxylase is the only enzyme of fatty acid synthesis in animals that is not part of the multienzyme complex called fatty acid synthase. 

The enzymes that catalyze formation of acetyl-ACP and malonyl-ACP and the subsequent reactions of fatty acid synthesis are organized quite differently in different organisms. We first discuss fatty acid biosynthesis in bacteria and plants, where the various reactions are catalyzed by separate, independent proteins. Then we discuss the animal version of fatty acid biosynthesis, which involves a single multienzyme complex called fatty acid synthase. 

The first domain of one subunit of the fatty acid synthase interacts with the second and third domains of the other subunit that is, the subunits are arranged in a head-to-tail fashion (Figure 25.9). The first step in the fatty acid synthase reaction is the formation of an acetyl-O-enzyme intermediate between the acetyl group of an acetyl-CoA and an active-site serine of the acetyl trails-... 

Wakil, S., 1989. Fatty acid synthase, a proficient multifunctional enzyme. Biochemistry 28 4523-4530. 

The Fatty Acid Synthase Complex Is a Polypeptide Containing Seven Enzyme Activities... 

In bacteria and plants, the individual enzymes of the fatty acid synthase system are separate, and the acyl radicals are found in combination with a protein called the acyl carrier protein (ACP). However, in yeast, mammals, and birds, the synthase system is a multienzyme polypeptide complex that incorporates ACP, which takes over the role of CoA. It contains the vitamin pantothenic acid in the form of 4 -phosphopan-tetheine (Figure 45-18). The use of one multienzyme functional unit has the advantages of achieving the effect of compartmentalization of the process within the cell without the erection of permeability barriers, and synthesis of all enzymes in the complex is coordinated since it is encoded by a single gene. 

Figure 21-2. Fatty acid synthase multienzyme complex. The complex is a dimer of two identical polypeptide monomers, 1 and 2, each consisting of seven enzyme activities and the acyl carrier protein (ACP). (Cys— SH, cysteine thiol.) The— SH of the 4 -phosphopantetheine of one monomer is in close proximity to the— SH of the cysteine residue of the ketoacyl synthase of the other monomer, suggesting a "head-to-tail" arrangement of the two monomers. Though each monomer contains all the partial activities of the reaction sequence, the actual functional unit consists of one-half of one monomer interacting with the complementary half of the other. Thus, two acyl chains are produced simultaneously. The sequence of the enzymes in each monomer is based on Wakil.

The Fatty Acid Synthase Complex Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase Are Adaptive Enzymes... 

The synthesis of long-chain fatty acids (lipogenesis) is carried out by two enzyme systems acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase. 

Particularly important to the pathways of modular synthases is the incorporation of novel precursors, including nonproteinogenic amino acids in NRP systems [17] and unique CoA thioesters in PK and fatty acid synthases [18]. These building blocks expand the primary metabolism and offer practically unlimited variability applied to natural products. Noteworthy within this context is the contiguous placement of biosynthetic genes for novel precursors within the biosynthetic gene cluster in prokaryotes. Such placement has allowed relatively facile elucidation of biosynthetic pathways and rapid discovery of novel enzyme mechanisms to create such unique building blocks. These new pathways offer a continued expansion of the enzymatic toolbox available for chemical catalysis. 

The first formation of a carbon-carbon bond occurs between malonyl and acetyl units bound to fatty acid synthase. After reduction, dehydration, and further reduction, the acyl enzyme is condensed with more malonyl-CoA and the cycle is repeated until the acyl chain grows to C16. When the growing fatty acid reaches a chain length of 16 carbons, the acyl group is hydrolyzed to give the free fatty acid. 

Once fatty acids have been made 16 carbons long, they can be lengthened by adding 2 carbon atoms at a time with malonyl-CoA in a reaction that looks a lot like the first step of fatty acid synthesis. However, the elongation reaction is carried out on the fatty acyl-CoA and by an enzyme that is different from fatty acid synthase.4 ... 

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