Metabolic Function
Fatty acids are aliphatic acids fundamental to energy production and storage, cellular structure and as intermediates in the biosynthesis of hormones and other biologically important molecules. They are synthesized by a series of decarboxylative Claisen condensation reactions from acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA. Following each round of elongation the beta keto group is reduced to the fully saturated carbon chain by the sequential action of a ketoreductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enol reductase (ER). The growing fatty acid chain is carried between these active sites while attached covalently to the phosphopantetheine prosthetic group of an acyl carrier protein (ACP), and is released by the action of a thioesterase (TE) upon reaching a carbon chain length of 16 (palmitidic acid).
Read more about this topic: Fatty Acid Synthase
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