Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia
  • 2 Centre for Chemical Biology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Sains@USM, Blok B No. 10, Persiaran Bukit Jambul, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia
  • 3 Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia
  • 4 School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia; Centre for Chemical Biology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Sains@USM, Blok B No. 10, Persiaran Bukit Jambul, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia. Electronic address: alex@usm.my
PMID: 30831207 DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2019.01.011

Abstract

The capacity of crustaceans to biosynthesise long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids has yet to be fully defined, due to the lack of evidence on the functional activities of enzymes involved in desaturation or elongation of fatty acid substrates. We report here the cloning and in vitro functional analysis of an elongase from the orange mud crab, Scylla olivacea. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis placed the elovl close to the vertebrate Elovl1 and Elovl7 clade, which is distinct from the other remaining five Elovl families. The elongase was also clustered together with several elongases from crustaceans and insects. This elongase showed activities towards 16:1n-7, and at lower rate, linoleic acid (18:2n-6) and linolenic acid (18:3n-3). To our knowledge this is the first description of a functional enzyme involved in biosynthesis of long-chained polyunsaturated fatty acids in a crustacean species. Expression of the S. olivacea elovl7-like mRNA was prominent in stomach, intestine and gill tissues, due to the need to regulate the permeability of epithelial tissue through modification of fatty acid compositions. The implication of our findings, in terms of ability of Crustacea phylum to biosynthesise polyunsaturated fatty acids is discussed.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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