Bacteria like E. coli synthesize fatty acids through a repeat extension with malonyl-ACP and adding 2 carbon at a time. Once the fatty acid chain reaches a certain number, usually palmitoyl-CPA (16 carbon), the extension stops. How do these organisms regulate the length of fatty acid being synthesized?
Hello Daniel,
The length contol in e.coli was mainly control by ketoacyl-acp synthase . There are three ketoacyl-acp synthases (KASI,II,III) in e.coli. KASII is the key one has higher activity with longer chain length from C8-to C16, and low activity for chain length longer than C16. If chain length is longer than C16, all KASs have low activty and no way for further elongation. Besides, E.coli has thioterases to cut the acyl chian from ACP for further elongation, therefore, most of the fatty acids from e.coli are with chain length 16C to 18C.
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