Journal
PLANT SCIENCE
Volume 210, Issue -, Pages 93-107Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2013.05.008
Keywords
Very-long-chain fatty acid; Fatty acid elongase complex; Condensing enzymes; Arabidopsis thaliana; CER2-LIKEs
Categories
Funding
- Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant
- Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship
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Very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) are essential molecules produced by all plant cells, and are components or precursors of numerous specialized metabolites synthesized in specific cell types. VLCFAs are elongated by an endoplasmic reticulum-localized fatty acid elongation complex of four core enzymes, which sequentially add two carbon units to a growing acyl chain. Identification and characterization of these enzymes in Arabidopsis thaliana has revealed that three of the four enzymes act as generalists, contributing to all metabolic pathways that require VLCFAs. A fourth component, the condensing enzyme, provides substrate specificity and determines the amount of product synthesized by the entire complex. Land plants have two families of condensing enzymes, FATTY ACID ELONGATION 1 (FAE1)-type ketoacyl-CoA synthases (KCSs) and ELONGATION DEFECTIVE-LIKEs (ELO-LIKEs). Our current knowledge of the specific roles of different condensing enzymes is incomplete, as is our understanding of the biological function of a recently characterized family of proteins, CER2-LIKEs, which contribute to condensing enzyme function. More broadly, the stoichiometry and quaternary structure of the fatty acid elongase complex remains poorly understood, and specific phylogenetic and biochemical questions persist for each component of the complex. Investigation of VLCFA elongation in different organisms, structural biochemistry, and cell biology approaches stand to greatly benefit this field of plant biology. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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