title: Characterization of membrane-bound fatty acid desaturases.
abstract: Membrane-bound desaturases play key role in metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Characterization of these enzymes and their genes is the first step in basic understanding of their proper functioning in living cells as well as in tailor-made preparation of highly-specific and highly-productive strains of microorganisms interesting for applied biotechnology. It is also the crucial step in creation of transgenic agricultural crops with enhanced content of individual polyunsaturated fatty acids. Properties and applications of identified membrane-bound desaturases genes and enzymes are discussed in this review.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinskeho 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. tatiana.klempova@stuba.sk.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Klempova
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mihalik
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Certik
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D005231:Fatty Acids, Unsaturated / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D005231:Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases