Cytochrome b₅ coexpression increases Tetrahymena thermophila Δ6 fatty acid desaturase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

ABSTRACT: Very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acids, are important to the physiology of many microorganisms and metazoans and are vital to human development and health. The production of these and related fatty acids depends on Δ6 desaturases, the final components of an electron transfer chain that introduces double bonds into 18-carbon fatty acid chains. When a Δ6 desaturase identified from the ciliated protist Tetrahymena thermophila was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures supplemented with the 18:2(Δ9,12) substrate, only 4% of the incorporated substrate was desaturated. Cytochrome b₅ protein sequences identified from the genome of T. thermophila included one sequence with two conserved cytochrome b₅ domains. Desaturatio

SUBMITTER: Dahmen JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3675999 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature