Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Chromerids.

Fatty acids are essential components of biological membranes, important for the maintenance of cellular structures, especially in organisms with complex life cycles like protozoan parasites. Apicomplexans are obligate parasites responsible for various deadly diseases of humans and livestock. We analyzed the fatty acids produced by the closest phototrophic relatives of parasitic apicomplexans, the chromerids Chromera velia and Vitrella brassicaformis, and investigated the genes coding for enzymes involved in fatty acids biosynthesis in chromerids, in comparison to their parasitic relatives. Based on evidence from genomic and metabolomic data, we propose a model of fatty acid synthesis in chromerids: the plastid-localized FAS-II pathway is responsible for the de novo synthesis of fatty acids reaching the maximum length of 18 carbon units. Short saturated fatty acids (C14:0-C18:0) originate from the plastid are then elongated and desaturated in the cytosol and the endoplasmic reticulum. We identified giant FAS I-like multi-modular enzymes in both chromerids, which seem to be involved in polyketide synthesis and fatty acid elongation. This full-scale description of the biosynthesis of fatty acids and their derivatives provides important insights into the reductive evolutionary transition of a phototropic algal ancestor to obligate parasites.

Revisiting the assignment of Rv0241c to fatty acid synthase type II of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The fatty acid synthase type II enzymatic complex of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (FAS-II(Mt)) catalyzes an essential metabolic pathway involved in the biosynthesis of major envelope lipids, mycolic acids. The partner proteins of this singular FAS-II system represent relevant targets for antituberculous drug design. Two heterodimers of the hydratase 2 protein family, HadAB and HadBC, were shown to be involved in the (3R)-hydroxyacyl-ACP dehydration (HAD) step of FAS-II(Mt) cycles. Recently, an additional member of this family, Rv0241c, was proposed to have the same function, based on the heterologous complementation of a HAD mutant of the yeast mitochondrial FAS-II system. In the present work, Rv0241c was able to complement a HAD mutant in the Escherichia coli model but not a dehydratase-isomerase deficient mutant. However, an enzymatic study of the purified protein demonstrated that Rv0241c possesses a broad chain length specificity for the substrate, unlike FAS-II(Mt) enzymes. Most importantly, Rv0241c exhibited a strict dependence on the coenzyme A (CoA) as opposed to AcpM, the natural acyl carrier protein bearing the chains elongated by FAS-II(Mt). The deletion of Rv0241c showed that this gene is not essential to M. tuberculosis survival in vitro. The resulting mutant did not display any change in the mycolic acid profile. This demonstrates that Rv0241c is a trans-2-enoyl-CoA hydratase/3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratase that does not belong to FAS-II(Mt). The relevance of a heterologous complementation strategy to identifying proteins of such a system is questioned.