title: Identification of a fatty acid Delta11-desaturase from the microalga Thalassiosira pseudonana.
abstract: A set of genomic DNA sequences putatively encoding front-end desaturases were identified by in silico analysis of the draft genome of the marine microalga Thalassiosira pseudonana. Among these candidate genes, an open reading frame named TpdesN was found to be full-length, intronless, and constitutively expressed during cell cultivation. The predicted amino acid sequence of the corresponding protein, TpDESN, exhibited typical features of desaturases involved in the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in algae, i.e. a cytochrome b5-like domain at the N-terminus and three conserved histidine-rich motifs in the desaturase domain. Expression of TpDESN in Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed that this enzyme was not involved in PUFA synthesis, but specifically desaturated palmitic acid 16:0 to 16:1Delta11. To our knowledge, until this report, Delta11-desaturase activity had only been detected in insect cells.
authors.affiliation: CNAP, Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5YW, UK.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tonon
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.forename: Renwei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Qing
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tony R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Graham
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D018744:DNA, Plant; D017377:Diatoms / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D017343:Genes, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006639:Histidine / Q000737:chemistry; D007700:Kinetics; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D006639:Histidine; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases