Abstract
The breakdown of fatty acids in animal tissues occurs by the /?oxidation route, in which oxidation proceeds by the removal of two carbon atoms at a time to yield acetyl-coenzyme-A and a fatty-acylcoenzyme-A two carbon atoms shorter than the initial compound. The history of investigations leading to our current understanding of this process has been reviewed in detail by Green (1954). Interest in the mechanism of fatty acid oxidation by fungi was first stimulated by the discovery that ketones were present in certain cheeses and edible oils attacked by fungi (Starkle, 1924). Acklin (1929) demonstrated that various fungi convert individual fatty acids into methyl ketones of one less carbon atom than the starting acid. Thaler et al. (1949) proposed the ^-oxidation pathway to account for the forma? tion of methyl ketones by fungi, the /?-keto acid formed by this process being decarboxylated to yield the methyl ketone. This proposal, up to the formation of the methyl ketone, agrees with current concepts of the process in animal cells. However, methyl ketones are not formed in appreciable amounts in normal animal cells, indicating the two systems are not identical.
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