Fatty acid synthases

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-... 

As seen already, palmitate is the primary product of the fatty acid synthase. Cells synthesize many other fatty acids. Shorter chains are easily made if the chain is released before reaching 16 carbons in length. Longer chains are made through special elongation reactions, which occur both in the mitochondria and at the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum. The ER reactions are actually quite similar to those we have just discussed addition of two-carbon units... 

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

Fatty acid synthesis 1 SREBP-1c, HNF-4a l Expression ACC1, fatty acid synthase Liver... 

Increased lipid synthesis/inhibi-tion of lipolysis Activation of lipoprotein lipase (LPL)/induc-tion of fatty acid synthase (FAS)/inactivation of hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) Facilitated uptake of fatty acids by LPL-dependent hydrolysis of triacylglycerol from circulating lipoproteins. Increased lipid synthesis through Akt-mediated FAS-expression. Inhibition of lipolysis by preventing cAMP-dependent activation of HSL (insulin-dependent activation of phosphodiesterases )... 

Pantothenic acid is an essential component of coenzyme A (CoA) (Fig. 2) and - as pantetheine - of fatty acid synthase. The HS-group of cysteamine is... 

Abbreviations TG, triglycerides LDL-C, low density lipoprotein cholesterol HDL-C, high density lipoprotein cholesterol FAS, fatty acid synthase VLDL, very low density lipoprotein. 

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. 

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is required to convert acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA. In turn, fatty acid synthase, a multienzyme complex of one polypeptide chain with seven separate enzymatic activities, catalyzes the assembly of palmitate from one acetyl-CoA and seven malonyl-CoA molecules. 

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. 

One of the sex pheromone components of the housefly, Musca domestica, is Z9-21 H that is found on the cuticular surface of the fly. This compound is formed by the elongation of Z9-18 CoA using malonyl-CoA and NADPH to Z15-24 CoA which is decarboxylated to form Z9-21 Hc (Fig. 3) [78-80]. Other pheromone components include an epoxide and ketone that are produced from Z9-21 Hc by a cytochrome P450 [81,82] and methyl-branched alkanes that are produced by the substitution of methylmalonyl-CoA in place of malonyl-CoA at specific points during chain elongation [83,84]. A novel microsomal fatty acid synthase is involved in production of methyl-branched alkanes in most insects [85-87]. This fatty acid synthase is different from the ubiquitous soluble fatty acid synthase that produces saturated straight chain fatty acids in that it is found in the microsomes and prefers methylmalonyl-CoA. The amino acids valine and isoleucine can provide the carbon skeletons for methylmalonyl-CoA as well as propionate [83]. 

Bennett MK, Lopez JM, Sanchez HB, Osborne TF. Sterol regulation of fatty acid synthase promoter. Coordinate feedback regulation of two major lipid pathways. J Biol Chem 1995 270 25578-25583. 

The first disclosed natural product was cerulenin (15), an irreversible inhibitor of FabB. This hydrophobic epoxide locates itself in the hydro-phobic groove of the acyl site and reacts covalently with the active site cysteine [26]. However, 15 was also found to inhibit eukaryotic fatty acid synthase. 

Tsukamoto, Y., and Wakil, S.J. (1988) Isolation and mapping of the b-hydroxyacyl dehydratase activity of chicken liver fatty acid synthase./. Biol. Chem. 263, 16225-16229. 

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. 

From here it s just the reaction catalyzed by 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... 

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