Cloning and functional characterization of Phaeodactylum tricornutum front-end desaturases involved in eicosapentaenoic acid biosynthesis.

Phaeodactylum tricornutum is an unicellular silica-less diatom in which eicosapentaenoic acid accumulates up to 30% of the total fatty acids. This marine diatom was used for cloning genes encoding fatty acid desaturases involved in eicosapentaenoic acid biosynthesis. Using a combination of PCR, mass sequencing and library screening, the coding sequences of two desaturases were identified. Both protein sequences contained a cytochrome b5 domain fused to the N-terminus and the three histidine clusters common to all front-end fatty acid desaturases. The full length clones were expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and characterized as Delta5- and Delta6-fatty acid desaturases. The substrate specificity of each enzyme was determined and confirmed their involvement in eicosapentaenoic acid biosynthesis. Using both desaturases in combination with the Delta6-specific elongase from Physcomitrella patens, the biosynthetic pathways of arachidonic and eicosapentaenoic acid were reconstituted in yeast. These reconstitutions indicated that these two desaturases functioned in the omega3- and omega6-pathways, in good agreement with both routes coexisting in Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Interestingly, when the substrate selectivity of each enzyme was determined, both desaturases converted the omega3- and omega6-fatty acids with similar efficiencies, indicating that none of them was specific for either the omega3- or the omega6-pathway. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the isolation and biochemical characterization of fatty acid desaturases from diatoms.