Reaction: a very-long-chain acyl-CoA + malonyl-CoA = a very-long-chain 3-oxoacyl-CoA + CO2 + CoA
Glossary: a very-long-chain acyl-CoA = an acyl-CoA thioester where the acyl chain contains 23 or more carbon atoms.
Other name(s): very-long-chain 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase; very-long-chain β-ketoacyl-CoA synthase; condensing enzyme (ambiguous); CUT1 (gene name); CER6 (gene name); FAE1 (gene name); KCS (gene name); ELO (gene name)
Systematic name: malonyl-CoA:very-long-chain acyl-CoA malonyltransferase (decarboxylating and thioester-hydrolysing)
Comments: This is the first component of the elongase, a microsomal protein complex responsible for extending palmitoyl-CoA and stearoyl-CoA (and modified forms thereof) to very-long-chain acyl CoAs. Multiple forms exist with differing preferences for the substrate, and thus the specific form expressed determines the local composition of very-long-chain fatty acids [6,7]. For example, the FAE1 form from the plant Arabidopsis thaliana accepts only 16 and 18 carbon substrates, with oleoyl-CoA (18:1) being the preferred substrate [5], while CER6 from the same plant prefers substrates with chain length of C22 to C32 [4,8]. cf. EC 1.1.1.330, very-long-chain 3-oxoacyl-CoA reductase, EC 4.2.1.134, very-long-chain (3R)-3-hydroxyacyl-[acyl-carrier protein] dehydratase, and EC 1.3.1.93, very-long-chain enoyl-CoA reductase
Links to other databases: BRENDA, EXPASY, KEGG, Metacyc, PDB, CAS registry number:
References:
1. Toke, D.A. and Martin, C.E. Isolation and characterization of a gene affecting fatty acid elongation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J. Biol. Chem. 271 (1996) 18413-18422. [PMID: 8702485]
2. Oh, C.S., Toke, D.A., Mandala, S. and Martin, C.E. ELO2 and ELO3, homologues of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ELO1 gene, function in fatty acid elongation and are required for sphingolipid formation. J. Biol. Chem. 272 (1997) 17376-17384. [PMID: 9211877]
3. Dittrich, F., Zajonc, D., Huhne, K., Hoja, U., Ekici, A., Greiner, E., Klein, H., Hofmann, J., Bessoule, J.J., Sperling, P. and Schweizer, E. Fatty acid elongation in yeast--biochemical characteristics of the enzyme system and isolation of elongation-defective mutants. Eur. J. Biochem. 252 (1998) 477-485. [PMID: 9546663]
4. Millar, A.A., Clemens, S., Zachgo, S., Giblin, E.M., Taylor, D.C. and Kunst, L. CUT1, an Arabidopsis gene required for cuticular wax biosynthesis and pollen fertility, encodes a very-long-chain fatty acid condensing enzyme. Plant Cell 11 (1999) 825-838. [PMID: 10330468]
5. Ghanevati, M. and Jaworski, J.G. Engineering and mechanistic studies of the Arabidopsis FAE1 β-ketoacyl-CoA synthase, FAE1 KCS. Eur. J. Biochem. 269 (2002) 3531-3539. [PMID: 12135493]
6. Blacklock, B.J. and Jaworski, J.G. Substrate specificity of Arabidopsis 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthases. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 346 (2006) 583-590. [PMID: 16765910]
7. Denic, V. and Weissman, J.S. A molecular caliper mechanism for determining very long-chain fatty acid length. Cell 130 (2007) 663-677. [PMID: 17719544]
8. Tresch, S., Heilmann, M., Christiansen, N., Looser, R. and Grossmann, K. Inhibition of saturated very-long-chain fatty acid biosynthesis by mefluidide and perfluidone, selective inhibitors of 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthases. Phytochemistry 76 (2012) 162-171. [PMID: 22284369]