title: The carnitine acyltransferases: modulators of acyl-CoA-dependent reactions.
abstract: Carnitine and carnitine acyltransferases were thought to be merely a mechanism for the rapid transfer of activated long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondrion for beta-oxidation, until enzymologists came along. By kinetic, physical and localization studies, eight different mammalian carnitine acyltransferases have been characterized. Of these, five have been cloned and sequenced. The carnitine :acylcarnitine exchange carrier, first characterized in mitochondria, has now been demonstrated immunologically in peroxisomal membranes too. This cell-wide carnitine system consisting of at least six proteins linking at least four intracellular pools of acyl-CoA that supply a multitude of lipid metabolic pathways is clearly more complex than was first thought. In this article, I describe the location and properties of the components to show how they can modulate acyl-CoA-dependent reactions in the cell.
authors.affiliation: Biomolecular Sciences, University of St. Andrews, Fife, UK.
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Ramsay
mesh_terms: D000214:Acyl Coenzyme A / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D002333:Carnitine Acyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D002332:Carnitine O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D002334:Carnitine O-Palmitoyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D007527:Isoenzymes; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D000214:Acyl Coenzyme A; D007527:Isoenzymes; D002333:Carnitine Acyltransferases; C030162:carnitine octanoyltransferase; D002334:Carnitine O-Palmitoyltransferase; D002332:Carnitine O-Acetyltransferase