Partial purification and properties of the fatty acid elongation systems in the outer and inner membranes of beef liver mitochondria.

Purified outer membrane of beef liver mitochondria was found to elongate medium chain fatty acyl-CoA primer by the incorporation of [1-14C]acetyl-CoA. This enzymic activity, extracted by Triton X-100, was purified 8-fold by ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by chromatography on a Sephadex column. Purified inner membrane, when processed through an identical purification procedure, yielded a second enzyme system which incorporated [1-14C]acetyl-CoA into long chain fatty acids in the presence of medium chain fatty acyl-CoA primer. This enzyme preparation was about four times as active as the preparation from the outer membrane, and used NADH as the reductant for the synthesis. The molecular weights of the inner and the outer membrane enzyme systems, estimated by gel filtration as well as sucrose density gradient centrifugation, were approx. 57 000 and 126 000, respectively. The partially purified outer membrane enzyme system required NADH and a medium chain acyl-CoA primer for the incorporation of [1-14C]acetyl-CoA into long chain fatty acids. KNC stimulated the reaction. NADPH could substitute for NADH only to a limited extent. Malonyl-CoA was ineffective as a substrate in this reaction. The optimum pH of the reaction was 7.2-7.6 in 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer. Dithiothreitol, beta-mercaptoethanol, N-ethylmaleimide and high concentrations of ATP and acyl-CoA primer inhibited the reaction. The specificity for the acyl-CoA primer in the reaction was very broad. All the primers tested, C8 to C16, incorporated acetyl-CoA significantly. However, maximum incorporation was observed with dodecanoyl-CoA. Decanoyl-CoA was the best primer for the enzyme system isolated from the inner membrane. About 42% of the radioactivity in the fatty acids synthesized by the outer membrane enzyme system, from myristoyl-CoA and [1-C14]acetyl-CoA, was in palmitic acid. Of the remaining activity, 41% was in stearic acid and about 38% in longer-chain acids. Hence, the elongation of the primer fatty acid by one C2 unit appeared to be the predominant process in this synthesis. In the elongation of myristoyl-C0A by the inner membrane enzyme system, palmitic acid which constituted nearly 78% of the fatty acids synthesized, was the primary product.