coli FAS ACP, and octadecanoyl-CoA using the M. tuberculosis FAS ACP enzyme (Brown et al.,

2005). In the current study, the streptomycetes FabH has been shown to have both a much greater difference in catalytic efficiency between isobutyryl-CoA and acetyl-CoA using FabC (the cognate ACP) than was initially observed using the E. coli ACP, and a much greater catalytic efficiency using malonyl-FabC than with malonyl-RedQ. In addition, RedP has been shown to effectively discriminate between malonyl-RedQ and malonyl-FabC, using Ivacaftor nmr only acetyl-CoA as a substrate. A recent model for FabH catalysis, based on experiments with the mtFabH, has indicated an open form of the enzyme, which orders around the acyl-CoA substrate and leads to the formation of an acyl-enzyme intermediate. In the case of the mtFabH, a long acyl-binding

pocket to accommodate acyl chains has been identified from the X-ray crystal structure analyses. Similar structural analyses have shown a small acyl-binding pocket for the E. coli FabH, which is only able to utilize acetyl-CoA and propionyl-CoA substrates (Heath & Rock, 1996; Qiu et al., 1999; Davies et al., 2000), and a slightly larger acyl-binding pocket for the enzyme in Staphylococcus aureus, which uses branched substrates such as isobutyryl-CoA (Qiu et al., 2005). Thus, it is the acyl-binding channel which to some extent dictates FabH specificity. The data obtained in the current study would indicate that the acyl-binding channel of RedP (which utilized click here only acetyl-CoA) is likely to be more restrictive than the corresponding binding channel of the

streptomycetes FabH enzyme (which also could utilize isobutyryl-CoA). The mtFabH model also provides a rationale for how steps subsequent to the formation of the acyl-enzyme intermediate, involving the malonyl-ACP, also contribute to the overall catalytic reaction rate and differing reaction rates for various acyl-CoA substrates. Reaction of the acyl-enzyme intermediate with the malonyl-ACP leads to the formation of the 3-ketoacyl-ACP product and an open form of the enzyme, which permits egress of the product via binding of the acyl group to an appropriate region of the ACP (Sachdeva et al., 2008). Chloroambucil Under certain conditions, this final step is the rate-determining step, and differences in the ability of ACPs to sequester the various acyl groups of the 3-ketoacyl-ACP products and to productively interact with the acyl-enzyme form of the FabH provide a basis for the observations regarding FabH specificity and activity. Thus, if FabC can sequester branched-chain acyl groups more effectively than the E. coli ACP, much faster reactions will be observed using this as the malonyl-ACP substrate with the streptomycetes FabH and isobutyryl-CoA. Slower overall rates observed with the streptomycetes FabH using malonyl-RedQ indicate that it can bind productively with the activated FabH, but there is a slower rate-limiting product release.