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Metabolism and Enzymology

A Preliminary Analysis of Fatty Acid Synthesis in Pea Roots ¹

Plant Science Department, Macdonald College of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 1C0 Canada

Subcellular fractions from pea (Pisum sativum L.) roots have been prepared by differential centrifugation techniques. Greater than 50% of the recovered plastids can be isolated by centrifugation at 500g for 5 minutes. Plastids of this fraction are largely free from mitochondrial and microsomal contamination as judged by marker enzyme analysis. De novo fatty acid biosynthesis in pea roots occurs in the plastids. Isolated pea root plastids are capable of fatty acid synthesis from acetate at rates up to 4.3 nanomoles per hour per milligram protein. ATP, bicarbonate, and either Mg²⁺ or Mn²⁺ are all absolutely required for activity. Coenzyme A at 0.5 millimolar improved activity by 60%. Reduced nucleotides were not essential but activity was greatest in the presence of 0.5 millimolar of both NADH and NADPH. The addition of 0.5 millimolar glycerol-3-phosphate increased activity by 25%. The in vitro and in vivo products of fatty acid synthesis from acetate were primarily palmitate, stearate, and oleate, the proportions of which were dependent on experimental treatments. Fatty acids synthesized by pea root plastids were recovered in primarily phosphatidic acid and diacylglycerol or as water soluble derivatives and the free acids. Lesser amounts were found in phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, and monogalactosyldiacylglycerol.