N. Verleur et al., TRANSPORT OF ACTIVATED FATTY-ACIDS BY THE PEROXISOMAL ATP-BINDING-CASSETTE TRANSPORTER PXA2 IN A SEMIINTACT YEAST-CELL SYSTEM, European journal of biochemistry, 249(3), 1997, pp. 657-661
In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, fatty acid beta-oxidation is re
stricted to peroxisomes. Previous studies have shown two possible rout
es by which fatty acids enter the peroxisome. The first route involves
transport of medium-chain fatty acids across the peroxisomal membrane
as free fatty acids, followed by activation within the peroxisome by
Faa2p, an acyl-CoA synthetase. The second route involves transport of
long-chain fatty acids. Long-chain fatty acids enter the peroxisome vi
a a route that involves activation in the extraperoxisomal space, foll
owed by transport across the peroxisomal membrane. It has been suggest
ed that this transport is dependent upon the peroxisomal ATP-binding-c
assette transporters Pxa1p and Pxa2p. In this paper we investigated wh
ether Pxa2p is directly responsible for the transport of C18:1-CoA, a
long-chain acyl-CoA ester. Using protoplasts in which the plasma membr
ane has been selectively permeabilised by digitonin, we show that C18:
1-CoA, but not C8:0-CoA, enters the peroxisome via Pxa2p, in an ATP-de
pendent fashion. The results obtained may contribute to the elucidatio
n of the primary defect in the human disease X-linked adrenoleukodystr
ophy.