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Desaturase Structure and Mechanism

Reference	BBS/E/J/40004011
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Stephen Bornemann
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	13,740
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1997
End date	01/04/1998
Duration	12 months

Abstract

Vegetable oils are major industrial raw materials used principally in food and detergent products. The total market size in western Europe and the USA is of the order of 2 million tonnes per annum. Despite the importance of lipid biosynthesis, little is known about the structure and mechanism of many of the key enzymes involved. Plant fatty acid desaturases are enzymes that introduce carbon- carbon double bonds into fatty acids using a catalytic site that involves an dinuclear iron centre. Such dinuclear iron centres are known to catalyse quite different reactions, such as hydroxylations and possibly epoxidations, in other enzyme systems. Several desaturases have recently been cloned and sequenced. The mechanism of desaturation by these biocatalysts will be studied at the atomic level using spectroscopic and rapid kinetic techniques using natural substrates and substrate analogues in conjunction with molecular biology and protein crystallography. Such a multi-disciplinary approach will allow an understanding of the factors affecting the substrate specificity and reaction selectivity of these enzymes

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Biochemistry & Cell Biology (BCB)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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