Substrate specificity of fatty acid synthetase from yeast.

The purified multienzyme complex fatty acid synthetase from yeast synthesizes palmitoyland stearoyl-CoA with NADPH, ace@-CoA and malonylCoA as substrates. At least seven different enzymatic steps have been shown to occur in the overall synthesis by the use of appropriate model substrates [l] , .e.g. S-acetoacetyl-N-acetylcysteamine for the @-ketoreductase partial activity. As reported in this communication, the model compounds S-acetyl-N-acetylcysteamine and S-m~onyl-~-acyIcysteam~e can replace the natural substrates acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA in the overall fatty acid synthesis.