Enzymes in fatty acid synthesis

The key enzyme in fatty acid synthesis is acetyl CoA carboxylase (see p. 162), which precedes the synthase and supplies the malonyl-CoA required for elongation. Like all carboxylases, the enzyme contains covalently bound biotin as a prosthetic group and is hormone-dependently inactivated by phosphorylation or activated by dephosphorylation (see p. 120). The precursor citrate (see p. 138) is an allosteric activator, while palmitoyl-CoA inhibits the end product of the synthesis pathway. 

What properties of acetyl-CoA carboxylase are consistent with a regulatory role for the enzyme in fatty acid synthesis ... 

ACC is the rate-limiting enzyme in fatty acid synthesis and fatty acid oxidation, and its inhibition is attractive for treatment of metabolic diseases.9 10 Indeed, ACC2 knockout mice are resistant to diet-induced obesity and type 2... 

We measured the activity of some enzymes involved in lipogenesis, that is, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in fatty add synthesis, and fatty acid synthase, another enzyme in fatty acid synthesis. The activities of Aese eni mes seemed to decrease after administration of the same EPA-derivatives as were found to increase the fatty add oxidation. 

Biotin functions to transfer carbon dioxide in a small number of carboxylation reactions. The reactive intermediate is 1-N-carboxybiocytin (Figure 11.25), formed from bicarbonate in an ATP-dependent reaction. A single holocarboxylase synthetase acts on the apoenzymes of acetyl CoA carboxylase (a key enzyme in fatty acid synthesis section 5.6.1), pyruvate carboxylase (a key enzyme in gluconeogenesis section 5.7), propionyl CoA carboxylase and methylcrotonyl CoA carboxylase to form the active holoenzymes from (inactive) apoenzymes and free biotin. 

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. 

Pymvate dehydrogenase is a mitochondrial enzyme, and fatty acid synthesis is a cytosohc pathway, but the mitochondrial membrane is impermeable to acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA is made available in the cytosol from citrate synthesized in the mitochondrion, transported into the cytosol and cleaved in a reaction catalyzed by ATP-citrate lyase. 

By 1960 it was clear that acetyl CoA provided its two carbon atoms to the to and co—1 positions of palmitate. All the other carbon atoms entered via malonyl CoA (Wakil and Ganguly, 1959 Brady et al. 1960). It was also known that 3H-NADPH donated tritium to palmitate. It had been shown too that fatty acid synthesis was very susceptible to inhibition by p-hydroxy mercuribenzoate, TV-ethyl maleimide, and other thiol reagents. If the system was pre-incubated with acetyl CoA, considerable protection was afforded against the mercuribenzoate. In 1961 Lynen and Tada suggested tightly bound acyl-S-enzyme complexes were intermediates in fatty acid synthesis in the yeast system. The malonyl-S-enzyme complex condensed with acyl CoA and the B-keto-product reduced by NADPH, dehydrated, and reduced again to yield the (acyl+2C)-S-enzyme complex. Lynen and Tada thought the reactions were catalyzed by a multifunctional enzyme system. 

The activity of carnitine palmitoyltransferase-I plays an important role in the regulation of fatty acid oxidation malonyl-CoA is an allosteric exhibitor of the enzyme. Malonyl-CoA is a key intermediate in fatty acid synthesis, which ensures that fatty acid oxidation is decreased when synthesis is taking place. Nonetheless, malonyl-CoA has a major role in the control of fatty acid oxidation in all tissues in which fatty acid oxidation occurs, even if no synthesis takes place. 

The synthesis of fatty acids in humans takes place in the liver and adipose tissue. The rates of synthesis are normally relatively low in adults in developed countries, probably because the normal diet contains such a high proportion of fat which reduces the activities of enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis by decreasing expression... 

The first step is carboxylation of acetyl CoA to malonyl CoA. This reaction is catalyzed by acetyl-CoA carboxylase [5], which is the key enzyme in fatty acid biosynthesis. Synthesis into fatty acids is carried out by fatty acid synthase [6]. This multifunctional enzyme (see p. 168) starts with one molecule of ace-tyl-CoA and elongates it by adding malonyl groups in seven reaction cycles until palmi-tate is reached. One CO2 molecule is released in each reaction cycle. The fatty acid therefore grows by two carbon units each time. NADPH+H is used as the reducing agent and is derived either from the pentose phosphate pathway (see p. 152) or from isocitrate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme reactions. 

In non-ruminants, the malonyl CoA is combined with an acyl carrier protein (ACP) which is part of a six-enzyme complex (molecular weight c. 500 kDa) located in the cytoplasm. All subsequent steps in fatty acid synthesis occur attached to this complex through a series of steps and repeated cycles, the fatty acid is elongated by two carbon units per cycle (Figure 3.8, see also Lehninger, Nelson and Cox, 1993). 

S ATP -P acetate <1-18> (<8> acetate kinase/phosphotransacetylase, major role of this two-enzyme sequence is to provide acetyl coenzyme A which may participate in fatty acid synthesis, citrate formation and subsequent oxidation [1] <3> function in the metabolism of pyruvate or synthesis of acetyl-CoA coupling with phosphoacetyltransacetylase [15] <11> function in the initial activation of acetate for conversion to methane and CO2 [19] <10> key enzyme and responsible for dephosphorylation of acetyl phosphate with the concomitant production of acetate and ATP [30]) (Reversibility r <1-18> [1, 2, 5-21, 24-27, 29-33]) [1, 2, 5-21, 24-27, 29-33]... 

Increased synthesis of lipid or uptake. Increased synthesis of lipid may be the cause of fatty liver after hydrazine administration as this compound increases the activity of the enzyme involved in the synthesis of diglycerides. Hydrazine also depletes ATP and, however, inhibits protein synthesis. Large doses of ethanol will cause fatty liver in humans, and it is believed that this is partly due to an increase in fatty acid synthesis. This is a result of an increase in the NADH/NAD"1" ratio and therefore of the synthesis of triglycerides. Changes in the mobilization of lipids in tissues followed by uptake into the liver can also be another cause of steatosis. 

Pathway of Hydrogen in Fatty Acid Synthesis Consider a preparation that contains all the enzymes and cofactors necessary for fatty acid biosynthesis from added acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA. 

The regulated step in fatty acid synthesis (acetyl CoA - malonyl CoA) is catalyzed by acetyl CoA carboxylase, which requires biotin. Citrate is the allosteric activator, and long-chain fatty acyl CoA is the inhibitor. The enzyme can also be activated in the presence of insulin and inactivated in the presence of epinephrine or glucagon. 

Nevertheless, malonyl-CoA is a major metabolite. It is an intermediate in fatty acid synthesis (see Fig. 17-12) and is formed in the peroxisomal P oxidation of odd chain-length dicarboxylic acids.703 Excess malonyl-CoA is decarboxylated in peroxisomes, and lack of the decarboxylase enzyme in mammals causes the lethal malonic aciduria.703 Some propionyl-CoA may also be metabolized by this pathway. The modified P oxidation sequence indicated on the left side of Fig. 17-3 is used in green plants and in many microorganisms. 3-Hydroxypropionyl-CoA is hydrolyzed to free P-hydroxypropionate, which is then oxidized to malonic semialdehyde and converted to acetyl-CoA by reactions that have not been completely described. Another possible pathway of propionate metabolism is the direct conversion to pyruvate via a oxidation into lactate, a mechanism that may be employed by some bacteria. Another route to lactate is through addition of water to acrylyl-CoA, the product of step a of Fig. 17-3. Tire water molecule adds in the "wrong way," the OH ion going to the a carbon instead of the P (Eq. 17-8). An enzyme with an active site similar to that of histidine ammonia-lyase (Eq. 14-48) could... 

The second type of arrangement observed for sequentially related enzymes is exemplified by the Escherichia coli fatty acid synthase (see chapter 18). This synthase is a complex of most of the enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis. The intermediates in this case are bound to the enzyme complex until synthesis is complete. 

Proposed organization of the enzymatic activities of fatty acid synthase from animal liver. Fatty acid synthase exists as a dimer of two giant identical peptides (Mr = 272,000). Each subunit has one copy of acyl carrier protein (ACP) and each of the enzyme activities involved in fatty acid synthesis is covalently linked. The two peptides are organized in a head-to-tail configuration in such a way that it is possible to make two fatty acid molecules at the same time. 

As the name anaerobic implies, the double bond of the fatty acid is inserted in the absence of oxygen. Biosynthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids follows the pathway described previously for saturated fatty acids until the intermediate /3-hydroxydecanoyl-ACP is reached (fig. 18.15). At this point, a new enzyme, /3-hydroxydecanoyl-ACP dehydrase, becomes involved. This dehydrase can form the a-j8 trans double bond, and saturated fatty acid synthesis can occur as previously discussed. In addition, this dehydrase is capable of isomerization of the double bond to a cis /3-y double bond as shown in figure 18.15. The /3-y unsaturated fatty acyl-ACP is subsequently elongated by the normal enzymes of fatty acid synthesis to yield pal-mitoleoyl-ACP (16 1A9). The conversion of this compound to the major unsaturated fatty acid of E. coli, cA-vacccnic acid (18 1A11), requires a condensing enzyme that we have not previously discussed, /3-ketoacyl-ACP synthase II, which shows a preference for palmitoleoyl-ACP as a substrate. The subsequent conversion to vaccenyl-ACP is cata-... 

Before discussing the specific aspects of regulation of fatty acid metabolism, let us review the main steps in fatty acid synthesis and degradation. Figure 18.18 illustrates these processes in a way that emphasizes the parallels and differences. In both cases, two-carbon units are involved. However, different enzymes and coenzymes are utilized in the biosynthetic and degradative processes. Moreover, the processes take place in different compartments of the cell. The differences in the location of the two processes and in the... 

In this cycle, one molecule of acetyl-CoA is formed from two molecules of bicarbonate (Figure 3.5). The key carboxylating enzyme is the bifunctional biotin-dependent acetyl-CoA/propionyl-CoA carboxylase. In Bacteria and Eukarya, acetyl-CoA carboxylase catalyzes the first step of fatty acid biosynthesis. However, Archaea do not contain fatty acids in their lipids, and acetyl-CoA carboxylase cannot serve as the key enzyme of fatty acid synthesis rather, it is responsible for autotrophy. 

The pathway The first committed step in fatty acid biosynthesis is the carboxylation of acetyl CoA to form malonyl CoA which is catalyzed by the biotin-containing enzyme acetyl CoA carboxylase. Acetyl CoA and malonyl CoA are then converted into their ACP derivatives. The elongation cycle in fatty acid synthesis involves four reactions condensation of acetyl-ACP and malonyl-ACP to form acetoacetyl-ACP releasing free ACP and C02, then reduction by NADPH to form D-3-hydroxybutyryl-ACP, followed by dehydration to crotonyl-ACP, and finally reduction by NADPH to form butyryl-ACP. Further rounds of elongation add more two-carbon units from malonyl-ACP on to the growing hydrocarbon chain, until the C16 palmitate is formed. Further elongation of fatty acids takes place on the cytosolic surface of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER). 

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