2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Microbial production of n-3 docosapentaenoic acid and development of its utilization
| Project/Area Number |
10450313
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B).
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
生物・生体工学
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| Research Institution | Hiroshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
SUZUKI Osamu Faculty of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (00274126)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
AKI Tsunehiro Faculty of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Research Associate, 工学部, 助手 (80284165)
SHIGETA Seiko Faculty of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Associate Professor, 工学部, 助教授 (10034381)
ONO Kazuhisa Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, Professor, 大学院・先端物質科学研究科, 教授 (10144883)
KAWAMOTO Seiji Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, Research Associate, 大学院・先端物質科学研究科, 助手 (90294537)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 2000
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| Keywords | Docosapentaenoic acid / Docosahexaenoic acid / Polyunsaturated fatty acid / Fatty acid desaturase / Fatty acid elongase / Thraustochytrium / Schizochytrium |
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| Research Abstract |
n-3 Docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) exhibits suppressive effect for coronary arteriosclerosis at 10-20 times higher activity than that of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), a precursor of DPA.However, its physiological role has yet to be elucidated enough and market for its commercial use remains small. One of the obstacles is the lack of source to provide inexpensive and an enough amount of DPA.The aim of this study was to develop the production system of microbial DPA.First, we isolated a number of marine microbes producing polyunsaturated fatty acids and evaluated their DPA productivity. One of them, Thraustochytrium sp. strain KK17-3, contained DPA at the level of 1-3% of total intracellular fatty acids. We further improved its DPA productivity through optimization of culture condition. In order to isolate and utilize genes involving to the biosynthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids, we tried to elucidate biosynthetic pathway of DPA in the marine microbe. As a result, a novel pathway including elongation of saturated fatty acids was found. This implied that n-6 DPA, but not n-3 DPA, was an intermediate for biosynthesis of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a final product of the pathway. However, we have also found that the Labyrinthula microbes contain conventional type of desaturases that are homologous to delta-12 and delta-6 desaturases from higher plants and fungi. This might indicate that n-3 DPA as well as EPA is biosynthesized along with the pathway identical to those of the most of eukaryotes. Indeed, n-3 DPA could be generated through an elongation of EPA by mammalian type of elongase.
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