Radioimmunoassay and Western Blot Analysis of Acyl Carrier Protein Isoforms in Plants

Abstract

Acyl carrier protein (ACP) is the central cofactor protein to which acyl chains are covalently linked as thioesters during de novo fatty acid synthesis and subsequent elongation and desaturation reactions in plants (Stumpf 1980). In yeast and animals, ACP is an integral part of the multifunctional polypeptide, fatty acid synthase, but in bacteria and plants, ACP is a separate, small polypeptide (ca. 9 kDa MW) which is acidic and heat stable (Majerus and Vagelos 1967; Stumpf 1980; Wakil et al. 1983). Despite this basic organizational difference, the structure of ACP has been highly conserved during evolution as evidenced by greater than 25% homology among the primary sequences of an animal ACP domain, bacterial and plant ACPs (Kuo and Ohlrogge 1984a), and by the interchangeability of bacterial and plant ACPs in several fatty acid biosynthetic reactions (Simoni et al. 1967).KeywordsFatty Acid SynthesisCastor BeanAcyl Carrier ProteinPolytron HomogenizerAntibody Binding SiteThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.