Fatty Acid Biosynthesis

Bernard James Rawlings, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Published online: July 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001390

Fatty acids are produced by most organisms on this planet, mainly for use in membranes or as a long‐term store of energy. While the overall organization and arrangement of the enzyme complexes varies, the underlying chemistry used to assemble fatty acids is virtually identical in every organism; the crucial step being decarboxylative addition of malonate thioesters to elongate the growing acyl chain by two carbons, followed by reduction, dehydration and reduction of the resulting 3‐oxo functionality to 3‐ CH2, prior to further chain elongation.

Keywords: fatty acid; desaturase; acyl carrier protein; malonyl‐CoA; acetyl‐CoA carboxylase

Figure 1. Incorporation of acetyl‐CoA into both the ‘starter unit’ and ‘extender units’ and incorporation of malonyl‐CoA into extender units only.
Figure 2. Fatty acid synthase complex showing all necessary enzymatic activities, cofactors and ‘swinging arm’ thiol.
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 References
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    book O'Hagan D (1991) The Polyketide Metabolites. Chichester: Ellis Horwood.
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    book Stryer L (1988) Biochemistry, 3rd edn. New York: WH Freeman.

Related Sub-Topics:

Lipids: Structure, Function, Metabolism
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Article Title: Fatty Acid Biosynthesis
 
How to Cite close
Rawlings, Bernard James(Jul 2001) Fatty Acid Biosynthesis. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0001390]