PUBLICATION
A vertebrate fatty acid desaturase with Delta 5 and Delta 6 activities
- Authors
- Hastings, N., Agaba, M., Tocher, D.R., Leaver, M.J., Dick, J.R., Sargent, J.R., and Teale, A.J.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-011203-2
- Date
- 2001
- Source
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98(25): 14304-14309 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- Base Sequence
- DNA, Complementary/genetics
- DNA, Complementary/isolation & purification
- Fatty Acid Desaturases/genetics*
- Fatty Acid Desaturases/metabolism
- Fatty Acids, Unsaturated/biosynthesis
- Fatty Acids, Unsaturated/chemistry
- Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
- Humans
- Linoleoyl-CoA Desaturase
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Phylogeny
- Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genetics
- Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
- Transformation, Genetic
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 11724940 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Citation
Hastings, N., Agaba, M., Tocher, D.R., Leaver, M.J., Dick, J.R., Sargent, J.R., and Teale, A.J. (2001) A vertebrate fatty acid desaturase with Delta 5 and Delta 6 activities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 98(25):14304-14309.
Abstract
Delta5 and Delta6 fatty acid desaturases are critical enzymes in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the polyunsaturated fatty acids arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acids. They are encoded by distinct genes in mammals and Caenorhabditis elegans. This paper describes a cDNA isolated from zebrafish (Danio rerio) with high similarity to mammalian Delta6 desaturase genes. The 1,590-bp sequence specifies a protein that, in common with other fatty acid desaturases, contains an N-terminal cytochrome b(5) domain and three histidine boxes, believed to be involved in catalysis. When the zebrafish cDNA was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae it conferred the ability to convert linoleic acid (18:2n-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (18:3n-3) to their corresponding Delta6 desaturated products, 18:3n-6 and 18:4n-3. However, in addition it conferred on the yeast the ability to convert di-homo-gamma-linoleic acid (20:3n-6) and eicosatetraenoic acid (20:4n-3) to arachidonic acid (20:4n-6) and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3), respectively, indicating that the zebrafish gene encodes an enzyme having both Delta5 and Delta6 desaturase activity. The zebrafish Delta5/Delta6 desaturase may represent a component of a prototypic vertebrate polyunsaturated fatty acids biosynthesis pathway.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping