The acyl carrier protein (ACP) is a cofactor of both

fatty acid In chemistry, particularly in biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an unbranched chain of an even number of carbon atoms, f ...

and

polyketide Polyketides are a class of natural products derived from a precursor molecule consisting of a chain of alternating ketone (or reduced forms of a ketone) and methylene groups: (-CO-CH2-). First studied in the early 20th century, discovery, biosynth ...

biosynthesis machinery. It is one of the most abundant proteins in cells of ''E. coli.'' In both cases, the growing chain is bound to the ACP via a thioester derived from the distal thiol of a 4'- phosphopantetheine moiety.

Structure

The ACPs are small negatively charged α-helical bundle proteins with a high degree of structural and amino acid similarity. The structures of a number of acyl carrier proteins have been solved using various NMR and crystallography techniques. The ACPs are related in structure and mechanism to the peptidyl carrier proteins (PCP) from nonribosomal peptide synthases.

Biosynthesis

Subsequent to the expression of the inactive ''apo'' ACP, the 4'-phosphopantetheine moiety is attached to a serine residue. This coupling is mediated by acyl carrier protein synthase (ACPS), a 4'-phosphopantetheinyl transferase. 4'- Phosphopantetheine is a prosthetic group of several acyl carrier proteins including the acyl carrier proteins (ACP) of fatty acid synthases, ACPs of polyketide synthases, the peptidyl carrier proteins (PCP), as well as aryl carrier proteins (ArCP) of nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS).

References

External links

* {{Carrier proteins Proteins