Phosphatide bases, biosynthesis

Fig. 2. Biosynthesis and dissimilation cycle of the phosphatide bases. Role of phospholipids in decarboxylation of serine and in methylation of ethanolamine to choline with adenosylmethionine as methyl group donor (from S9).

Phosphatidic acid, the parent compound for the glycerol-based phospholipids (Figure 8.4), consists of 5w-glycerol-3-phosphate, with fatty acids esterified at the T and 2-positions. Phosphatidic acid is found in small amounts in most natural systems and is an important intermediate in the biosynthesis of the more common glycerophospholipids (Figure 8.6). In these compounds, a... 

Burstein and Hunter (1995) observed that THC stimulated the biosynthesis of anandamide in neuroblastoma cells employing either ethanolamine or arachidonic acid as the label. Anandamide bios5mthesis has also been shown to occur in primary cultures of rat brain neurons labelled with [H]-ethanolamine when stimulated with ionomycin, a Ca ionophore (Di Marzo et al. 1994). These authors proposed an alternate model for the biosynthesis of anandamide in which N-arachidonoyl phosphatidyl ethanolamine is cleaved by a phospholipase D activity to yield phosphatidic acid and ararchidonoylethanolamide. This model is based upon extensive studies undertaken by Schmid and collaborators (1990), who have shown that fatty acid ethanolamide formation results from the N-acylation of phosphatidyl ethanolamine by a transacylase to form N-acyl phosphatidylethanolamine. Possibly resulting from postmortem changes, this compound is subsequently hydrolyzed to the fatty acid ethanolamide and the corresponding phosphatide by a phosphodiesterase, phospholipase D. 

The 1, 2-diglyceride arises by a dephosphorylation of a diacyl-phospha-tidic acid (a glycerophosphatide without the base) in the presence of a specific phosphatase. The phosphatidic acids which are intermediates in the biosynthesis of lecithins are the result of a combination, in the presence of ATP and a specific enzyme, of a-glycerophosphoric acid with two molecules of fatty add activated by CoA. These compounds of aliphatic acids and CoA are provided by the fatty acid cycle functioning in the direction of biosynthesis. The enzyme catalysing acyl transfer has a special spedfidty for the acyl-CoA derivatives of the Cu and Cjg acids. 

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