School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol, UK BS8 1 TS.
While X-ray and NMR structures are now available for most components of the Type II fatty acid synthase (FAS), there are no structures for Type I FAS domains. A region from the mammalian (rat) FAS, including the putative acyl carrier protein (ACP), has been cloned and over-expressed. Here we report multinuclear, multidimensional NMR studies which show that this isolated ACP domain contains four alpha-helices (residues 8-16 [1]; 41-51 [2]; 58-63 [3] and 66-74 [4]) and an overall global fold characteristic of ACPs from both Type II FAS and polyketide synthases (PKSs). The overall length of the structured ACP domain (67 residues) is smaller than the structured regions of the Eschericia coli FAS ACP (75 residues), the actinorhodin PKS ACP (78 residues) and the Bacillus subtilis FAS ACP (76 residues). We further show that the rat FAS ACP is recognised as an efficient substrate by enzymes known to modify Type II ACPs including phosphopantetheinyl and malonyl transferases, but not by the heterologous S. coelicolor minimal polyketide synthase.