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Three, two, one yeast fatty acid desaturases: regulation and function

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Abstract

Fatty acid composition of biological membranes functionally adapts to environmental conditions by changing its composition through the activity of lipid biosynthetic enzymes, including the fatty acid desaturases. Three major desaturases are present in yeasts, responsible for the generation of double bonds in position C9–C10, C12–C13 and C15–C16 of the carbon backbone. In this review, we will report data addressed to define the functional role of basidiomycete and ascomycete yeast desaturase enzymes in response to various external signals and the regulation of the expression of their corresponding genes. Many yeast species have the complete set of three desaturases; however, only the Δ9 desaturase seems to be necessary and sufficient to ensure yeast viability. The evolutionary issue of this observation will be discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Sapienza Università di Roma (C26A147BSJ) and by Ministero Affari Esteri e Cooperazione Internazionale, Direzione generale per la Promozione del Sistema Paese (MX14MO08, PGR00208 and PGR00209).

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  1. Dip. di Biologia e Biotecnologie C. Darwin, Sapienza Università di Roma, p.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Rosa Santomartino & Michele M. Bianchi

  2. División de Biología Molecular, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICYT), A.C., San Luis Potosí, Mexico

    Lina Riego-Ruiz

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  1. Rosa Santomartino
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  2. Lina Riego-Ruiz
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  3. Michele M. Bianchi
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Correspondence to Michele M. Bianchi.

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Santomartino, R., Riego-Ruiz, L. & Bianchi, M.M. Three, two, one yeast fatty acid desaturases: regulation and function. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 33, 89 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-017-2257-y

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