Article
Details
Citation
Monroig O, Li Y & Tocher DR (2011) Delta-8 desaturation activity varies among fatty acyl desaturases of teleost fish: high activity in delta-6 desaturases of marine species. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 159 (4), pp. 206-213. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10964959; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpb.2011.04.007
Abstract
The benefits of dietary fish and fish oil are derived from n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) that have beneficial effects in a range of human diseases and pathologies such as cardiovascular and other inflammatory disorders, neural development and neurological pathologies. The precursor of n-3 LC-PUFA, 18:3n-3 does not have the same beneficial effects prompting interest in the pathways of endogenous synthesis of LC-PUFA in vertebrates. The LC-PUFA biosynthesis pathway classically involves ¦¤6 and ¦¤5 fatty acyl desaturases (Fad), but it was recently shown that ¦¤6 Fad in mammals also displayed ¦¤8 activity demonstrating a possible alternative ¡°¦¤8-pathway¡± for the synthesis of LC-PUFA. Our primary hypothesis was that ¦¤8 desaturase activity would be a common feature of vertebrate ¦¤6 Fads, and so the aim of the present study was to determine the ability of teleostei Fads for ¦¤8 desaturation activity. To this end, cDNAs for Fads from a range of freshwater, diadromous and marine teleost fish species were assayed for ¦¤8 activity in the heterologous yeast expression system. In summary, the present study has demonstrated that ¦¤8 desaturation activity was also a characteristic of fish orthologs, although the activity varied notably between freshwater/diadromous and marine fish species, with the latter possessing Fads2-like proteins with ¦¤8 activity far higher than mammalian FADS2. The data showed that, generally, the fish Fad are technically ¦Ô-3 desaturases, with new double bonds introduced 3C beyond a pre-existing double bond. However, the ability of zebrafish and rabbitfish Fads, previously characterised as ¦¤6/¦¤5 bifunctional desaturases, to introduce non-methylene interrupted double bonds in 20:3n-3 and 20:2n-6 suggested that a novel combination of regioselectivity modes operates within these enzymes.
Keywords
Teleost fish; long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid; Biosynthesis; Fatty acyl desaturases; Delta-8 activity; Delta-6 activity; Yeast expression assay; Marine; Freshwater; Dietary supplements; Fishes nutrition; Fishes feeding and feeds; Lipids in nutrition
Journal
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Volume 159, Issue 4
Status | Published |
---|---|
Publication date | 31/08/2011 |
Date accepted by journal | 01/01/1990 |
URL | |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Publisher URL | |
ISSN | 1096-4959 |