The yeast fatty acid synthase (FAS) is a barrel-shaped 2.6 MDa complex. Upon barrel-formation, two multidomain subunits, each more than 200 kDa large, intertwine to form a heterododecameric complex that buries 170,000 Å 2 of protein surface. In spite of the rich knowledge about yeast FAS in structure and function, its assembly remained elusive until recently, when co-translational interaction of the β-subunit with the nascent α-subunit was found to initiate assembly. Here, we characterize the co-translational assembly of yeast FAS at a molecular level. We show that the co-translationally formed interface is sensitive to subtle perturbations, so that the exchange of two amino acids located in the emerging interface can prevent assembly. On the other hand, assembly can also be initiated via the co-translational interaction of the subunits at other sites, which implies that this process is not strictly site or sequence specific. We further highlight additional steps in the biogenesis of yeast FAS, as the formation of a dimeric subunit that orchestrates complex formation and acts as platform for post-translational phosphopantetheinylation. The presented data supports the understanding of the recently discovered prevalence of eukaryotic complexes for co-translational assembly, and is valuable for further harnessing FAS in the biotechnological production of aliphatic compounds. Fatty acid synthases (FAS) have been structurally studied during the last years, and a deep understanding about the molecular foundations of de novo fatty acid (FA) synthesis has been achieved 1-4 (Supplementary Fig. 1A,B). The architecture of fungal FAS was elucidated for the proteins from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) 5-7 and the thermophilic fungus Thermomyces lanuginosus 8 , revealing an elaborate 2.6 MDa large α 6 β 6 barrel-shaped complex that encapsulates fungal de novo FA synthesis in its interior (Fig. 1A). The functional domains are embedded in a scaffolding matrix of multimerization and expansion elements. Acyl carrier protein (ACP) domains, shuttling substrates and intermediates inside the reaction chamber, achieve compartmentalized synthesis 5,9 (Fig. 1B,C). The concept of metabolic crowding makes fungal FAS a highly efficient machinery, running synthesis at micromolar virtual concentrations of active sites and substrates 10,11. The outstanding efficacy in fungal FA synthesis is documented by (engineered) oleagenic yeast that can grow to lipid cellular contents of up to 90% 12. Fungal FAS have also raised interest as biofactories in microbial production of value-added compounds from saturated carbon chains 13-15. Notwithstanding a profound knowledge about this protein family, the biogenesis of fungal FAS has not been investigated until recently, when Shiber et al. identified yeast FAS as initiating assembly via the co-translational interaction of subunits α (encoded by FAS2) and β (FAS1) 16. Co-translational assembly was analyzed with a modified version of a ribosome profiling protocol in which ribosome protected mRNA foo...