Artemia

Six elongases, termed Elo1 to Elo6, have been identified, cloned and characterised. The ability of the A. franciscana Elo enzymes to elongate PUFA substrates has been examined through heterologous expression. Results show that the capacity of the A. franciscana Elo to elongate the exogenously supplemented PUFA varies among enzymes. First, both Elo2 and Elo5 are able to convert all PUFA assayed (18:3n-3, 18:2n-6, 18:4n-3, 18:3n-6, 20:5n-3, 20:4n-6, 22:5n3 and 22:4n-6) to the corresponding 2-carbon elongated products . Moreover, both Elo1 and Elo6 have the ability to elongate all C₁₈ PUFA substrates, as well as 20:5n-3, although Elo1 but not Elo6 elongates 22:5n-3 to 24:5n-3. Finally, the A. franciscana Elo3 and Elo4 recognise only two out of four C₁₈ PUFA as substrates, namely 18:4n-3 and 18:3n-6 for Elo3, and 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-6 for Elo4, with no activity detected towards any C₂₀ and C₂₂ PUFA.

The elongases of Artemia