Activity of human Δ5 and Δ6 desaturases on multiple n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids

• Published in: FEBS letters 2001-11, Vol.509 (1), p.77-80
• Main Authors: de Antueno, Roberto J., Knickle, Leah C., Smith, Heidi, Elliot, Michele L., Allen, Stephen J., Nwaka, Solomon, Winther, Michael D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Desaturase; Elongase; Essential fatty acid biosynthesis; fatty acids are designated with a number that refers to the number of carbons in the chain; Polyunsaturated fatty acid; PUFAs, polyunsaturated fatty acids; SC-Leu and SC-U-Leu, synthetic minimal medium lacking either leucine or uracil and leucine, respectively; the number after the colon indicates the number of double bonds and the n refers to the location of the nearest double bond from the methyl end
• ISSN: 0014-5793; 1873-3468
• DOI: 10.1016/S0014-5793(01)03135-0

Yeast co-expressing human elongase and desaturase genes were used to investigate whether the same desaturase gene encodes an enzyme able to desaturate n-3 and n-6 fatty acids with the same or different carbon chain length. The results clearly demonstrated that a single human Δ5 desaturase is active on 20:3n-6 and 20:4n-3. Endogenous Δ6 desaturase substrates were generated by providing to the yeast radiolabelled 20:4n-6 or 20:5n-3 which, through two sequential elongations, produced 24:4n-6 and 24:5n-3, respectively. Overall, our data suggest that a single human Δ6 desaturase is active on 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 24:4n-6 and 24:5n-3.