Bio Chemistry

BIOCHEMISTRY 3(2+1)

Lesson 22 : Fatty Acid Synthesis

Introduction

Fatty acids have four major physiologic roles in the cell:

1. Building blocks of phospholipids and glycolipids
2. Added onto proteins to create lipoproteins, which targets them to membrane locations
3. Fuel molecules - source of ATP
4. Fatty acid derivatives serve as hormones and intracellular messengers

Fatty acid synthesis and ? -oxidation pathways may be compared:

	? Oxidation Pathway	Fatty Acid Synthesis
pathway location	mitochondrial matrix	cytosol
acyl carriers (thiols)	Coenzyme-A	phosphopantetheine (ACP) & cysteine
electron acceptors/donor	FAD & NAD+	NADPH
hydroxyl intermediate	L	D
2-C product/donor	acetyl-CoA	malonyl-CoA (& acetyl-CoA)