Hydrocarbons, Oils and Lipids: Diversity, Properties and Formation.

M. A. MARTINEZ . G. E. SCHUJMAN . H. C. GRAMAJO . D. DE MENDOZA.

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Año: 2010 p. 9

Fatty acid biosynthesis is an essential process for bacteria, but it is also energetically expensive. In addition, bacterial survival depends on membrane lipid homeostasis and on the ability to adjust lipid composition to acclimatize the bacterial cells to several environments. Thus, bacteria have developed homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the concentration of lipids at particular levels. Fatty acid synthesis in bacteria is achieved by a highly conserved set of genes in which each gene encodes an individual enzymatic step in the type II biosynthetic pathway. All of the proteins in this pathway are located in the cytosol, and each has been purified and biochemically characterized. Furthermore, the structure and catalytic mechanism of each enzyme is known in considerable detail. Although bacteria precisely and stringently control the synthesis of their membrane lipids, the regulatory mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, the principal genetic and biochemical processes that are responsible for membrane lipid homeostasis are reviewed.