Diatoms and Plants Acyl-CoA:lysophosphatidylcholine Acyltransferases (LPCATs) Exhibit Diverse Substrate Specificity and Biochemical Properties

The search of the Phaeodactylum tricornutum genome database revealed the existence of six genes potentially encoding lysophospholipid acyltransferases. One of these genes, Phatr3_J20460, after introduction to yeast ale1 mutant disrupted in the LPCAT gene, produced a very active acyl-CoA:lysophosphatidylcholine (LPCAT) enzyme. Using in vitro assays applying different radioactive and non-radioactive substrates and microsomal fractions from such yeast, we have characterized the biochemical properties and substrate specificities of this PtLPCAT1. We have found that the substrate specificity of this enzyme indicates that it can completely supply phosphatidylcholine (PC) with all fatty acids connected with a biosynthetic pathway of very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs) used further for the desaturation process. Additionally, we have shown that biochemical properties of the PtLPCAT1 in comparison to plant LPCATs are in some cases similar (such as the dependency of its activity on pH value), differ moderately (such as in response to temperature changes), or express completely different properties (such as in reaction to calcium and magnesium ions or toward some acyl-CoA with 20C polyunsaturated fatty acids). Moreover, the obtained results suggest that cloned “Phatr3_J20460” gene can be useful in oilseeds plant engineering toward efficient production of VLC-PUFA as LPCAT it encodes can (contrary to plant LPCATs) introduce 20:4-CoA (n-3) to PC for further desaturation to 20:5 (EPA, eicosapentaenoic acid).