Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jun 22;20(12):3058.
doi: 10.3390/ijms20123058.

Comparison of the Substrate Preferences of ω3 Fatty Acid Desaturases for Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Pushkar Shrestha  1 , Xue-Rong Zhou  2 , Sapna Vibhakaran Pillai  3 , James Petrie  4 , Robert de Feyter  5 , Surinder Singh  6
Affiliations

Comparison of the Substrate Preferences of ω3 Fatty Acid Desaturases for Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Pushkar Shrestha et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3 LC-PUFAs) such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5ω3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6ω3) are important fatty acids for human health. These ω3 LC-PUFAs are produced from their ω3 precursors by a set of desaturases and elongases involved in the biosynthesis pathway and are also converted from ω6 LC-PUFA by omega-3 desaturases (ω3Ds). Here, we have investigated eight ω3-desaturases obtained from a cyanobacterium, plants, fungi and a lower animal species for their activities and compared their specificities for various C18, C20 and C22 ω6 PUFA substrates by transiently expressing them in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Our results showed hitherto unreported activity of many of the ω3Ds on ω6 LC-PUFA substrates leading to their conversion to ω3 LC-PUFAs. This discovery could be important in the engineering of EPA and DHA in heterologous hosts.

Keywords: DHA; EPA; Omega-3 desaturase; long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids; substrate specificity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Enzymatic activities of transiently expressed ω3Ds from various sources in N. benthamiana leaves on 18:2ω6 substrate. ω3D activities were determined by measuring the conversion rate of endogenous 18:2ω6 substrate to 18:3ω3 in leaves expressing p19 silencing suppressor only as a control or the appropriate ω3D with p19. The error bars denote the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Enzymatic activities of transiently expressed ω3Ds from various sources in N. benthamiana leaves on 18:3ω6 substrate. ω3D activities were determined by measuring the conversion rate of provided 18:3ω6 substrate to 18:4ω3 in leaves expressing p19 silencing suppressor only as a control or the appropriate ω3D with p19. The error bars denote the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Enzymatic activities of transiently expressed ω3Ds from various sources in N. benthamiana leaves on 20:3ω6 substrate. ω3D activities were determined by measuring the conversion rate of provided 20:3ω6 substrate to 20:4ω3 in leaves expressing p19 silencing suppressor only as a control or the appropriate ω3D with p19. The error bars denote the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Enzymatic activities of transiently expressed ω3Ds from various sources in N. benthamiana leaves on 20:4ω6 substrate. ω3D activities were determined by measuring the conversion rate of provided 20:4ω6 substrate to 20:5ω3 in leaves expressing p19 silencing suppressor only as a control or the appropriate ω3D with p19. The error bars denote the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Enzymatic activities of transiently expressed ω3Ds from various sources in N. benthamiana leaves on 22:4ω6 substrate. ω3D activities were determined by measuring the conversion rate of provided 22:4ω6 substrate to 22:5ω3 in leaves expressing p19 silencing suppressor only as a control or the appropriate ω3D with p19. The error bars denote the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Enzymatic activities of transiently expressed ω3Ds from various sources in N. benthamiana leaves on 22:5ω6 substrate. ω3D activities were determined by measuring the conversion rate of provided 22:5ω6 substrate to 22:6ω3 in leaves expressing p19 silencing suppressor only as a control or the appropriate ω3D with p19. The error bars denote the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Competition for ω6-fatty acid substrates (18:3ω6, 20:3ω6, 20:4ω6, 22:4ω6, 22:5ω6) by ω3-desaturases from various sources transiently expressed in N. benthamiana. Error bars represent the standard deviations of the means from triplicate assays.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Simopoulos A.P. An Increase in the Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio Increases the Risk for Obesity. Nutrients. 2016;8:128. doi: 10.3390/nu8030128. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berger M.E., Smesny S., Kim S.W., Davey C.G., Rice S., Sarnyai Z., Schlöegelhofer M., Schafer M.R., Berk M., McGorry P.D., et al. Omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid ratio and subsequent mood disorders in young people with at-risk mental states: A 7-year longitudinal study. Transl. Psychiatry. 2017;7:e1220. doi: 10.1038/tp.2017.190. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ruxton C.H., Reed S.C., Simpson M.J., Millington K.J. The health benefits of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids: A review of the evidence. J. Hum. Nutr. Diet. 2004;17:449–459. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-277X.2004.00552.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang Z., Fulgoni III V.L., Kris-Etherton P.M., Mitmesser S.H. Dietary Intakes of EPA and DHA Omega-3 Fatty Acids among US Childbearing-Age and Pregnant Women: An Analysis of NHANES 2001–2014. Nutrients. 2018;10:416. doi: 10.3390/nu10040416. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Usher S., Han L., Haslam R.P., Michaelson L.V., Sturtevant D., Aziz M., Chapman K.D., Sayanova O., Napier J.A. Tailoring seed oil composition in the real world: Optimising omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid accumulation in transgenic Camelina sativa. Sci. Rep. 2017;7:6570. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06838-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances