Abstract:
Penicillium chrysogenum was investigated to determine whether there are lipoproteins specifically associated with fatty acid synthesis and in what fraction of P. chrysogenum they are located. Radio-activity labeled free fatty acids and CoA thioester substrates were added to cell-free extracts and incubated. Samples of these incubation mixtures were analyzed for lipoprotein content with electrophoresis and for the presence of radioactivity with a radiochromatogram scanner and scintillation spectrometer.Label from fatty acyl thioester substrates migrated with protein fractions having alpha-2 or beta mobility showing the existence of lipoproteins associated with fatty acid metabolism in cell-free extracts of P. chryogenum. The percent distribution of radioactivity from the thioester incubations supported previous work in this laboratory on the desaturase system and suggested the presence of a long chain fatty acyl-CoA-ACP synthetase enzyme in Penicillium chrysogeum.