A kinetic rationale for functional redundancy in fatty acid biosynthesis
Abstract
Fatty acid synthesis is a centrally important metabolic process in which a subset of enzymes often share catalytic roles, a form of “functional redundancy.” We developed a detailed kinetic model of the fatty acid pathway of Escherichia coli and paired that model with an experimentally reconstituted pathway to determine how partially redundant enzymes work together to build fatty acids. Our results suggest that enzymes with overlapping activities afford tight control of competing biochemical objectives (i.e., the total production, unsaturated fraction, and average length of fatty acids). This work describes how functional redundancy enhances the versatility of fatty acid synthesis and provides a powerful toolset for studying pathway kinetics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 03, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.2013924117
Entities
People
- Alex Ruppe
- Jerome M Fox
- Kathryn Mains
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- National Institutes of Health
- University of Colorado Boulder