A new mechanism for unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae

  • Park, Keum-Hwa (Institute of Natural Sciences. College of Natural Sciences. Seoul Women′s Univ.) ;
  • Hedia, Marrackchi (Department of Infectious Diseases. St. Jude Children′s Research Hospital) ;
  • Charles, Rock (Department of Infectious Diseases. St. Jude Children′s Research Hospital)
  • Published : 2002.10.01

Abstract

The anaerobic pathway for unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis was established in the 1960s in Escherichia coli. The double bond is introduced into the growing acyl chain by FabA., an enzyme capable of both the dehydration of ${\beta}$-hydroxdecanoyl-[acyl carrier protein] (ACP) to trans-2-decenoyl-ACP. and the isomerization of trans-2 to cis-3-decenoyl-ACP. However. there are a number of anaerobic bacteria whose genomes do not contain a fabA homolog, but these organisms nonetheless produce unsaturated fatty acids. (omitted)

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