Substrate specificity of condensing enzymes is a predominant factor determining the nature of fatty acyl chains synthesized by type II fatty acid synthase (FAS) enzyme complexes composed of discrete enzymes. The gene (mtKAS) encoding the condensing enzyme, -ketoacyl-[acyl carrier protein] (ACP) synthase (KAS), constituent of the mitochondrial FAS was cloned from Arabidopsis thaliana, and its product was purified and characterized. The mtKAS cDNA complemented the KAS II defect in the E. coli CY244 strain mutated in both fabB and fabF encoding KAS I and KAS II, respectively, demonstrating its ability to catalyze the condensation reaction in fatty acid synthesis. In vitro assays using extracts of CY244 containing all E. coli FAS components, except that KAS I and II were replaced by mtKAS, gave C 4 -C 18 fatty acids exhibiting a bimodal distribution with peaks at C 8 and C 14 -C 16 . Previously observed bimodal distributions obtained using mitochondrial extracts appear attributable to the mtKAS enzyme in the extracts. Although the mtKAS sequence is most similar to that of bacterial KAS IIs, sensitivity of mtKAS to the antibiotic cerulenin resembles that of E. coli KAS I. In the first or priming condensation reaction of de novo fatty acid synthesis, purified His-tagged mtKAS efficiently utilized malonyl-ACP, but not acetyl-CoA as primer substrate. Intracellular targeting using green fluorescent protein, Western blot, and deletion analyses identified an N-terminal signal conveying mtKAS into mitochondria. Thus, mtKAS with its broad chain length specificity accomplishes all condensation steps in mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis, whereas in plastids three KAS enzymes are required.Fatty acids are synthesized by the enzymatic reactions of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) 1 and fatty acid synthase (FAS). FAS enzyme complexes are classified into two groups based on their structural forms and organization. Complexes consisting of multifunctional polypeptides encoded by one or two genes (type I) are present in the cytoplasm of animals and fungi (1, 2), whereas those composed of monofunctional enzymes (type II) are present in most bacteria and plant plastids (3, 4) as well as in mitochondria, as will be detailed below. The incipient reaction of fatty acid synthesis is catalyzed by ACCase to form malonyl-CoA from acetyl-CoA, the initial carbon source. The first FAS activity, malonyl-CoA:ACP transacylase (MCAT), transfers the malonyl group from CoA to acyl carrier protein (ACP) to form the donor substrate malonyl-ACP that provides the C 2 -units for elongation. Repetitive elongation cycles accomplished by FAS start with condensation of the acyl primer substrate with the C 2 -unit to give a -ketoacyl-ACP. The introduced -keto group is then removed by three reactions, a -keto reduction, a -dehydration, and an enoyl reduction. The resulting saturated acyl-ACP serves as a substrate for the next extension. Most frequently seven or eight cycles yield palmitoyl (C 16 )-ACP and stearoyl (C 18 )-ACP, respectively. Additional FAS ac...
Lipoic acid is a coenzyme that is essential for the activity of enzyme complexes such as those of pyruvate dehydrogenase and glycine decarboxylase. We report here the isolation and characterization of LIP1 cDNA for lipoic acid synthase of Arabidopsis. The Arabidopsis LIP1 cDNA was isolated using an expressed sequence tag homologous to the lipoic acid synthase of Escherichia coli. This cDNA was shown to code for Arabidopsis lipoic acid synthase by its ability to complement a lipA mutant of E. coli defective in lipoic acid synthase. DNA-sequence analysis of the LIP1 cDNA revealed an open reading frame predicting a protein of 374 amino acids. Comparisons of the deduced amino acid sequence with those of E. coli and yeast lipoic acid synthase homologs showed a high degree of sequence similarity and the presence of a leader sequence presumably required for import into the mitochondria. Southernhybridization analysis suggested that LIP1 is a single-copy gene in Arabidopsis. Western analysis with an antibody against lipoic acid synthase demonstrated that this enzyme is located in the mitochondrial compartment in Arabidopsis cells as a 43-kD polypeptide.Lipoic acid (6,8-thioctic acid) is a sulfur-containing coenzyme that is required for the activity of enzyme complexes involved in the oxidative decarboxylation of ␣-ketoacids (Reed and Hackert, 1990;Perham, 1991;Mattevi et al., 1992) and in the Gly-cleavage system (Fujiwara et al., 1990;Kim and Oliver, 1990;Macherel et al., 1990). There are five lipoyl proteins: the dihydrolipoamide acyltransferase subunits of pyruvate, ␣-ketoglutarate, branched-chain ␣-ketoacid dehydrogenase complexes, protein X of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, and the H-protein of the Gly-cleavage system. Lipoic acid is covalently bound to these proteins via an amide linkage to the ⑀-amino group of specific Lys residues (Reed and Hackert, 1966). The lipoylLys arm functions as a carrier of reaction intermediates, and reducing equivalents interact with the active sites of the components of the complexes (Yeaman, 1989; Douce et al., 1994).Despite the importance of the lipoyl-prosthetic group in the functioning of several enzyme complexes, the biosynthesis of lipoic acid is not well understood in any organism. Molecular genetic studies (Vanden Boom et al., 1991;Reed and Cronan, 1993;Morris et al., 1994Morris et al., , 1995 of Escherichia coli have identified three genes, lipA, lipB, and lplA that are involved in the biosynthesis and transfer of lipoic acid. lipA encodes a lipoic acid synthase that is required for an insertion of the first sulfur atom into the octanoate backbone (Reed and Cronan, 1993). lplA and lipB encode lipoate ligases that are involved in the transfer of lipoic acid to cognate proteins (Morris et al., 1994(Morris et al., , 1995. LplA and LipB proteins primarily function in the utilization of lipoic acid exogenously added to the growth medium and endogenously synthesized lipoic acid in E. coli cells, respectively (Morris et al., 1994(Morris et al., , 1995. LplA protein is involved...
In eukaryotes, the biosynthetic pathway for lipoic acid is present in mitochondria. However, it has been hypothesized that, in plants, the biosynthetic pathway is present in plastids in addition to mitochondria. In this study, Arabidopsis thaliana LIP1p cDNA for a plastidial form of lipoic acid synthase has been identified. We show that it encodes a lipoic acid synthase by demonstrating its ability to complement an Escherichia coli mutant lacking lipoic acid synthase activity. We also show that LIP1p is targeted to chloroplasts. These findings suggest that the biosynthetic pathway for lipoic acid is present not only in mitochondria but also in plastids. ß
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