New Zealand obese (NZO) mice exhibit severe insulin resistance of hepatic glucose metabolism. In order to define its biochemical basis, we studied the differential expression of genes involved in hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism by microarray analysis. NZOxF1 (SJLxNZO) backcross mice were generated in order to obtain populations with heterogeneous metabolism but comparable genetic backgroun...

Metabolic engineering of microalgae to accumulate high levels of medium chain length fatty acids (MCFAs) has met with limited success. Traditional approaches employ single introduction of MCFA specific acyl-ACP thioesterases (TEs), but our current research in transgenic Dunaliella tertiolecta line has highlighted that, there is no single rate-limiting approach that can effectively increase MCFA...

Rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata (RCDP) is a genetic disorder which is clinically characterized by rhizomelic shortening of the upper extremities, typical dysmorphic facial appearance, congenital contractures and severe growth and mental retardation. Patients with RCDP can be subdivided into three subgroups based on biochemical analyses and complementation studies. The largest subgroup cont...

The beta-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) synthase I in the plant fatty acid synthetase catalyzes the condensations of acetate units to a growing acyl-ACP leading to the synthesis of palmitoyl-ACP. Barley chloroplasts contain three cerulenin sensitive beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase I isoforms, alpha 2, alpha beta, and beta 2. The Kas12 gene encoding the beta 2 isozyme has been isolated and seque...

Clones that confer the ability to produce N-acyl amino acids onto model cultured bacterial hosts are frequently identified in activity-based screens of soil DNA libraries. The N-acyl amino acids encoded by these clones are synthesized from acyl-(acylcarrier-protein)s (acyl-ACPs) and amino acids by a diverse group of bacterial enzymes referred to as N-acyl amino acid synthases (NASs). 2] The acy...

Fatty acids (FAs) are diverse molecules, and such diversity is important for lipids to exert their functions under several environmental conditions. FA elongation occurs at the endoplasmic reticulum and produces a variety of FA species; the FA elongation cycle consists of four distinct enzyme reactions. For this cycle to be driven efficiently, there must exist coordinated regulation of protein ...

The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) synthase catalyses the condensation of acetoacetyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA to form HMGCoA plus free CoA. The activity of HMG-CoA synthase is located in two different compartments: the cytosol and the mitochondria. The HMG-CoA produced by cytosolic HMG-CoA synthase is transformed into mevalonate by the action of HMG-CoA reductase, thus starting the ...

cu-Isopropylmalate synthase (EC 4.1.3.12) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was purified to a purity of about 95%. The molecular weight of the enzyme is approximately 127,000, as determined by sedimentation equilibrium centrifugation and by intersubunit cross-linking. Under denaturing conditions, one major species (95%) with molecular weight of about 65,000 is obtained. The dimeric structure of the...

We report here on the characterization of a cDNA library from seeds of Jatropha curcas L. at three stages of fruit maturation before yellowing. We sequenced a total of 2200 clones and obtained a set of 931 non-redundant sequences (unigenes) after trimming and quality control, ie, 140 contigs and 791 singlets with PHRED quality ≥10. We found low levels of sequence redundancy and extensive metabo...