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Characterization of three Δ9-fatty acid desaturases with distinct substrate specificity from an oleaginous fungus Cunninghamella echinulata

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Abstract

In oleaginous fungus Cunninghamella echinulata, Δ9-fatty acid desaturase introduces the first double bond into a saturated fatty acid. Three distinct genes, designated as d9dma, d9dmb and d9dmc, all encoding putative Δ9-fatty acid desaturases were isolated from this strain. The predicted proteins showed 79–87 % identity to other fungal Δ9-fatty acid desaturases. They all contain three conserved histidine boxes, C-terminal cytochrome b 5 fusion and four transmembrane domains characteristic of Δ9-desaturase. Each putative Δ9-desaturase gene from C. echinulata was able to complement the ole1 mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae L8-14C through heterologous expression. Analysis of the fatty acid composition of the transgenic yeast revealed that the conversion rates of 16:0 and 18:0 by D9DMA were obviously higher than those of D9DMB and D9DMC. In addition, D9DMA, D9DMB and D9DMC all had a substrate preference for 18:0 compared with 16:0. Of interest, D9DMA could saturate 12:0, 14:0, 16:0, 17:0, 18:0 and 20:0, while D9DMB saturated 14:0, 16:0, 17:0, 18:0 and 20:0. We also noticed that the transcriptional level of d9dma in C. echinulata was stimulated by cell growth but not by decline in temperature. In contrast, expression of d9dmb and d9dmc was regulated by neither cell growth nor decline in temperature in this strain.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31000778) and National Hi-Tech Program of China Grant (2011AA100904).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430062, People’s Republic of China

    Xia Wan, Zhuo Liang, Yangmin Gong, Yinbo Zhang & Mulan Jiang

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  1. Xia Wan
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  2. Zhuo Liang
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  3. Yangmin Gong
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  4. Yinbo Zhang
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  5. Mulan Jiang
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Correspondence to Mulan Jiang.

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Wan, X., Liang, Z., Gong, Y. et al. Characterization of three Δ9-fatty acid desaturases with distinct substrate specificity from an oleaginous fungus Cunninghamella echinulata . Mol Biol Rep 40, 4483–4489 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-013-2540-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-013-2540-4

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