[2013.9.24] We published a paper about new insight into the regulation mechanism of fatty acid synthesis inAurantiochytriumonJ. Agric. Food Chem.

Aurantiochytriumis an important alternative source of DHA, a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) as benificial nutrient for human.Aurantiochytriumhas two fatty acid synthesis pathways, FAS and PKS, for synthesis of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, repectively. The regulation between the two pathways are largely unknown before. In this research, we utilized short chain fatty acids as substrates for FAS and PKS, and analyzed their impact on the fatty acid synthesis. We found that FAS and PKS pathways utilize these substrates differently. Furthermore, we found FAS pathway depends on malic enzyme to obtain NADPH, while PKS pathway is independent on malic enzyme, which indicates that the two pathways have different NADPH sources. These new findings provide clues to supress saturated fatty acid synthesis and increase DHA production in fture.

Assoctae professor Dr. Xiaojin Song and research assistant Yanzhen Tan are co-first authors of the paper. Dr. Xiaojin Song and Prof. Qiu Cui are the corresponding authors. The work was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China.

NCBI PubMed 

Xiaojin Song*†, Yanzhen Tan†, Yajun Liu, Jingtao Zhang, Guanglei Liu, Yingang Feng, and Qiu Cui* (2013) Different impact of short-chain fatty acids on saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis inAurantiochytriumsp. SD116.J. Agric. Food Chem.61(41), 9876-9881. [Full text (Publisher website)]