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Updated: Apr 3, 2026
Dietary Supplementation of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: November 29, 2013
The codon-optimized Δ(6)-desaturase gene of Pythium sp. as an empowering tool for engineering n3/n6 polyunsaturated
Sukanya Jeennor1, Pattsarun Cheawchanlertfa1, Sarinya Suttiwattanakul1
1Bioprocess Technology Laboratory, Bioresources Technology Unit, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, 113 Thailand Science Park, Khlong Nueng, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani, 12120, Thailand.
Background:
The ∆(6)-desaturase gene, encoding a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids, has potential in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.
Results:
The ∆(6)-desaturase gene has been isolated from a selected strain of Oomycetes, Pythium sp. BCC53698. The cloned gene (PyDes6) contained an open reading frame (ORF) of 1401 bp encoding 466 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence shared a high similarity to those of other ∆(6)-desaturases that contained the signature features of a membrane-bound ∆(6)-desaturase, including a cytochrome b 5 and three histidine-rich motifs and membrane-spanning regions. Heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae showed that monoene, diene and triene fatty acids having ∆(9)-double bond were substrates for PyDes6. No distinct preference between the n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acyl substrates was found. The ∆(6)-desaturated products were markedly increased by codon optimization of PyDes6.
Conclusion:
The codon-optimized ∆(6)-desaturase gene generated in this study is a promising tool for further reconstitution of the fatty acid profile, in a host system of choice, for the production of economically important fatty acids, particularly the n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
