{"title":"Functional and Mechanistic Insights into the Fatty-Acid CoA Ligase FadK in <i>Escherichia coli</i>.","authors":"Dafeng Liu, Ablikim Abdiriyim, Lvxia Zhang, Feng Yu","doi":"10.31083/FBL36701","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong><i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) is a common opportunistic bacterial pathogen in both human and animal populations. Fatty acids serve as the central carbon and energy source, a process mediated by fatty acid-coenzyme A (CoA) ligases encoded by <i>fad</i> genes such as <i>FadK</i>. However, the function and the mechanism of FadK remain unclear.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The three-dimensional structure of FadK was modeled using AlphaFold2. After expression and purification, monomeric FadK was successfully isolated. The enzymatic activity was assayed, and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to quantify <i>FadK</i> expression levels.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In enzymatic assays of fatty acid CoA ligase activity, caprylic acid was found to be the optimal substrate for FadK. We determined the optimal catalytic conditions for FadK, which include a pH of 7.4, ATP concentration of 0.6 mM, CoA concentration of 0.8 mM, and Mg<sup>2+</sup> concentration of 0.8 mM at 37 °C. Notably, the activity of FadK showed a decrease with increasing concentrations of dodecyl-AMP, which was further confirmed by the RT-qPCR results.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings will serve as a fundamental framework for the development of innovative therapeutics that target <i>E. coli</i> infections.</p>","PeriodicalId":73069,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in bioscience (Landmark edition)","volume":"30 4","pages":"36701"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in bioscience (Landmark edition)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.31083/FBL36701","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common opportunistic bacterial pathogen in both human and animal populations. Fatty acids serve as the central carbon and energy source, a process mediated by fatty acid-coenzyme A (CoA) ligases encoded by fad genes such as FadK. However, the function and the mechanism of FadK remain unclear.
Methods: The three-dimensional structure of FadK was modeled using AlphaFold2. After expression and purification, monomeric FadK was successfully isolated. The enzymatic activity was assayed, and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to quantify FadK expression levels.
Results: In enzymatic assays of fatty acid CoA ligase activity, caprylic acid was found to be the optimal substrate for FadK. We determined the optimal catalytic conditions for FadK, which include a pH of 7.4, ATP concentration of 0.6 mM, CoA concentration of 0.8 mM, and Mg2+ concentration of 0.8 mM at 37 °C. Notably, the activity of FadK showed a decrease with increasing concentrations of dodecyl-AMP, which was further confirmed by the RT-qPCR results.
Conclusions: Our findings will serve as a fundamental framework for the development of innovative therapeutics that target E. coli infections.