Metabolism of Long-Chain Fatty Acids in the Rumen

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the metabolism of long-chain fatty acids in the rumen. The studies described in the chapter reveal the importance of veterinary problems in stimulating new interest in biochemical processes that might improve foods of animal origin and, thus, human nutrition. They have contributed to one of the most interesting areas of biochemical studies: the molecular basis of evolution. They have allowed the discovery of living biochemical fossils and have helped to elucidate the mechanisms of branched fatty acid biosynthesis and unsaturated fatty acid biohydrogenation. Studies on the origin of petroleum in association with studies on biological evolution show that branched-chain hydrocarbon structures derive from the corresponding fatty acid molecules. In fatty acid biohydrogenation, the enzyme responsible for the disappearance of a π bond probably represents a vestige, whose deep biological meaning is now hidden in the rumen, of the mechanisms of energy transformations of primitive organisms, when there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, at the beginning of life on earth.