A critical role for very long-chain fatty acid elongases in oleic acid-mediated Saccharomyces cerevisiae cytotoxicity

Publication date: Available online 6 November 2017 Source:Microbiological Research Author(s): Qiao Wang, Xiuxiu Du, Ke Ma, Ping Shi, Wenbin Liu, Jing Sun, Min Peng, Zhiwei Huang Elongases FEN1/ELO2 and SUR4/ELO3 are important enzymes involved in the elongation of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) to very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The molecular mechanism of the involvement of these elongases in lipotoxicity is unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of VLCFA elongases in oleic acid-mediated yeast cytotoxicity. The spot test showed that yeast strains with the deletion of ELO2 or ELO3 were strikingly sensitive to oleic acid, while there was no change on the growth of strain with deleted ELO1 which was involved in the elongation of C14 fatty acid (FA) to C16 FA. By using GC-MS, the unsaturation index was increased in elo2△ and elo3△ mutants after treatment with oleic acid (OLA). However, the proportion of VLCFAs was increased in response to OLA in the wild-type strain. The growth inhibition of elo2△ and elo3△ could be partially rescued by two commonly used antioxidant agents N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and Ascorbic acid (VC). The further study showed that exposure to excess OLA led to an increase in the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and a decline in the quantity of reduced glutathione (GSH) in both the wild type and mutant strains. However, the antioxidant ...
Source: Microbiological Research - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research