Activation and Transport
Free fatty acids cannot penetrate the plasma membrane due to their negative charge. Once in the cytosol, activation of the fatty acid is catalyzed by long fatty acyl CoA synthetase. A fatty acid reacts with ATP to give a fatty acyl adenylate, plus inorganic pyrophosphate, which then reacts with free coenzyme A to give a fatty acyl-CoA ester plus AMP. If the fatty acyl-CoA has a long chain (10 or more carbons) then it is reacted with carnitine to form acylcarnitine, which is transported across the inner mitochondrial membrane by a Carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase. If the fatty acyl-CoA contains a short chain (less than 10 carbons) it can simply diffuse through the inner mitochondrial membrane.
Read more about this topic: Beta Oxidation
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