How much energy is required to synthesize a saturated C12 fatty acid? How does this compare with the catabolism of a C12 fatty acid?
How much energy is required to synthesize a saturated C12 fatty acid? How does this compare with the catabolism of a C12 fatty acid?
Fatty acid synthesis occurs in the cytosol of all eukaryotic cells except plants (occurs in chloroplast). The enzymes required for the fatty acid synthesis are located in the cytosol of non-photosynthetic eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Fatty acid synthesis is performed by 2 enzyme complexes:
- Acetyl CoA carboxylase complex
- Fatty acid synthase complex
The acetyl CoA carboxylase contains 2 enzymes namely biotin carboxylase and transcarboxylase. Biotin is attached to biotin carrier protein. Biotin carboxylase attaches CO2 to the biotin by consuming 1 ATP. Then the CO2 is transferred to Acetyl CoA by transcarboxylase to form Malonyl CoA, the precursor of fatty acids.
Fatty acid synthase is a multi enzyme complex made up of 6 enzymes. They all together perform 4 key reactions:
- Condensation
- Reduction
- Dehydration
- Reduction
This process consumes 2 NADH per 2 carbon unit added. The number of cycles required to synthesize a fatty acid of n carbons long is . The number of acetyl CoA molecules required is .
So, in-order to synthesize a fatty acid of 12 C long, n=12 , number of cycles required would be 5 and number of Acetyl CoA molecules required is 6.
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