Ch. 16 Flashcards
What purposes do fatty acid oxidation and fatty acid synthesis serve in animals?
- Fatty acid oxidation: provides energy to cells when glucose levels are low
- Fatty acid synthesis: liver and adipose tissue convert excess acetyl-CoA into fatty acids that can be stored or exported as TAGs
What are the net reactions of fatty acid degradation and synthesis for the typical C16 fatty acid palmitate?
- Fatty acid oxidation
Palmitate + 7 NAD+ + 7 FAD + 8 CoA + 7 H2O + ATP –> 8 Acetyl-CoA + 7 NADH + 7 FADH2 + AMP + 2 Pi + 7 H+
- Fatty acid synthesis
8 Acetyl-CoA + 7ATP + 14 NADPH + 14 H+ –> Palmitate + 8 CoA + 7 ADP + 7 Pi + 14 NADP+ + 6 H2O
What are the key enzymes in fatty acid metabolism?
- Fatty acyl-CoA synthetase
- Carnitine acyltransferase I (CAT1)
- Acetyl-CoA carboxylase
- Fatty acid synthase
What are examples of fatty acid metabolism in everyday biochemistry?
Kangaroo rat and camel: survive in deserts for long periods of time without drinking water
What is fatty acyl-CoA synthetase?
Set of 3 enzymes responsible for formation of fatty acyl-CoA molecules
- Catalyzes priming reaction
What is carnitine acyltransferase I (CAT1)?
Mitochondrial outer membrane enzyme that converts fatty acyl-CoA to fatty acyl-carnitine for transport into mitochondria
What is acetyl-CoA carboxylase?
Cytosolic enzyme that carboxylates acetyl-CoA
- 1st step in fatty acid synthesis (commitment step)
What is fatty acid synthase?
Multi-functional protein (euks) or multienzyme complex (proks) that’s responsible for synthesis of fatty acids like palmitate
Where does fatty acid β-oxidation occur?
Mitochondria
What are the steps of the formation of fatty acyl-CoA?
- Fatty acyl-CoA synthetase catalyzes the adenylation of a fatty acid to form fatty acyl-adenylate (enzyme-bound
intermediate) - Fatty acyl-adenylate is attacked by the thiol group of CoA, forming the thiolester fatty acyl-CoA product and releasing AMP
What are the 2 possible fates of fatty acyl-CoA? (hint: has to do with energy charge)
- Low energy charge: fatty acid degradation is favored
- High energy charge: fatty acid synthesis is favored
What is the carnitine transport cycle?
3-step process that translocates fatty acids across the inner mitochondrial membrane
What is this?
Carnitine
What are the steps of the carnitine transport cycle?
-
CAT1 replaces CoA with carnitine to form palmitoylcarnitine
- Inhibited by malonyl-CoA when fatty acid synthesis is favored - Carnitine-acetylcarnitine translocase exchanges palmitoylcarnitine for carnitine
- Conversion of palmitoylcarnitine back to palmitoyl-CoA
- Catalyzed by CAT2
What are the 2 important functions of the carnitine transport cycle in regulating cell metabolism?
- Provides mechanism to control flux of fatty acids into degradation or TAG/membrane lipid synthesis
- Maintains separate pools of CoA (cytosolic and mitochondrial)
What is the β-oxidation pathway?
Fatty acid oxidation pathway that removes 2-carbon units from a fatty acid chain
- Produces FADH2, NADH, and acetyl-CoA
What is hypoglycin A?
Amino acid derivative found in high concentrations in unripe ackee fruit
- Inhibitor of liver mitochondrial acyl-CoA dehydrogenases
- Jamaican vomiting sickness
What is the net reaction of the β-oxidation pathway?
Palmitoyl-CoA + 7 CoA + 7 FAD + 7 NAD+ + 7 H2O –> 8 Acetyl-CoA + 7 FADH2 + 7 NADH + AMP + 2 Pi + 7 H+
What are the steps of electron transfer in β-oxidation?
- Acyl-CoA dehydrogenase donates electrons from the first fatty acid oxidation reaction to enzyme-bound FAD in ETF
- Electron pair is passed to Fe-S center in ETF-Q oxidoreductase
- Electron pair is passed from Fe-S center to coenzyme Q
What are the auxiliary pathways for fatty acid oxidation?
Note: β-oxidation usually uses even-numbered and fully saturated fatty acids
- Degradation of monounsaturated fatty acids (ex. oleoyl-CoA)
- Degradation of unsaturated fatty acids (ex. cis-Δ9, cis-Δ12-linoleoyl-CoA
What is ketogenesis? Where does it occur?
- Conversion of excess acetyl-CoA into ketone bodies
- Liver cell mitochondria
List ketone bodies.
Acetoacetate and D-β-hydroxybutyrate
What are the steps of ketogenesis?
- β-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase condenses 2 molecules of acetyl-CoA to form acetoacyl-CoA
- HMG-CoA synthase adds another acetyl-CoA to form HMG-CoA
-
HMG-lyase converts HMG to acetoacetate
4 & 5. Acetoacetate is exported directly or converted to acetone
What uses ketone bodies to generate acetyl-CoA?
- Skeletal and cardiac muscle
- During extreme starvation: brain
What is ketoacidosis?
Side effect of excess ketone body formation, resulting in low blood pH
Diagram the carbon flow from glucose to fatty acids.
- Citrate synthase combines oxaloacetate and acetyl-CoA to form citrate, which is shuttled to the cytosol where it is cleaved by citrate lyase back into acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate
- Cytosolic acetyl-CoA is converted to malonyl-CoA by acetyl-CoA carboxylase
- Liver cells: fatty acids and glycerol are combined to form TAGs, which are packed in VLDLs
What is citrate lyase?
Cytosolic enzyme that cleaves the acetyl group from citrate to form acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate
Fatty acid synthesis and degradation are complementary pathways. Compare and contrast them.
Both
- Require 4-step reaction cycle
- Involve removal or addition of C2 units attached to CoA
Differences prevent futile cycling
- Different locations
- Different reductants/oxidant
- Degradation needs multiple enzymes but synthesis only needs 1 multifunctional enzyme
- Degradation uses CoA as acetyl group anchor vs. synthesis uses ACP as hydrocarbon anchor
What is ACP?
Protein with serine linked phosphopantetheine group that serves as the attachment site for intermediates during fatty acid synthesis
Where does fatty acid degradation occur?
Mitochondrial matrix
What are the oxidants for fatty acid degradation?
FAD and NAD+
What is the rate-limiting step for fatty acid degradation?
Carnitine-mediated transport into the mitochondrial matrix