The work of Konrad Bloch's laboratory on unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in bacteria

Martin J Spiering

doi:10.1074/jbc.cl119.010972

Abstract

The work of Konrad Bloch's laboratory on unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in bacteria

Highlights

Many organisms, including humans, produce unsaturated fatty acids by desaturating saturated fatty acids, as Rudolf Schoenheimer and David Rittenberg reported in the 1930s working with mammalian cells [1] and Konrad Bloch and Daniel Bloomfield showed in the 1960s studying yeast [2]
This question piqued the curiosity of Bloch, who had a longstanding interest in oxygen as a biosynthetic reagent and was aware that molecular oxygen is toxic to some microorganisms
Howard Goldfine worked with Bloch on bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis and is emeritus professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania

Summary

Introduction

Many organisms, including humans, produce unsaturated fatty acids by desaturating saturated fatty acids, as Rudolf Schoenheimer and David Rittenberg reported in the 1930s working with mammalian cells [1] and Konrad Bloch and Daniel Bloomfield showed in the 1960s studying yeast [2]. “[The course] caused him to wonder what goes on in anaerobes, because obviously, they could not use molecular oxygen [for making unsaturated fatty acids],” Goldfine says. The work of Bloch, Goldfine, and colleagues on unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in clostridia resulted in two JBC papers, recognized as Classics here [4, 5].

Results

Conclusion