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Functional characterization and substrate specificity analysis of Δ6-desaturase from marine microalga Isochrysis sp
S Thiyagarajan1, M Arumugam2,3, N Senthil4
1Department of Molecular Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 625021, India.
Objectives:
To express a Δ6-desaturase gene and produce gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and stearidonic acid (SDA) in prokaryotic expression system (Escherichia coli), and analyze its substrate specificity in the omega-3 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway.
Results:
Full-length ORF (1448 bp) of Δ6Des-Iso was isolated from Isochrysis sp. and characterized using multiple sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, transmembrane domain, and protein tertiary structure. Δ6Des-Iso is a front-end desaturase consisting of three conserved histidine domains and a cytochrome b5 domain. Δ6Des-Iso was cloned and expressed in E. coli with the production of GLA and SDA. Recombinant E. coli utilized 27 and 8% of exogenously supplied alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA) to produce 6.3% of SDA and 2.3% of GLA, respectively, suggesting that isolated Δ6Des-Iso is specific to the omega-3 pathway.
Conclusion:
For the first time production of GLA and SDA in a prokaryotic system was achieved.
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