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#palmitoylation

2 public questions tagged with this topic.

Why does palmitoylation enhance membrane association?

Increasing membrane residence time via acylation leverages hydrophobic insertion energy of long chain fatty acid. S-palmitoylation attaches sixteen-carbon saturated palmitate from palmitoyl-CoA donor to cysteine thiol via thioester bond catalyzed by twenty three mammalian Asp-His-His-Cys palmitoyl acyltransferases resident in endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi and plasma membrane, reversible by cytosolic acyl-protein thioesterases APT1, APT2 and ABHD17 family enabling dynamic cycling within minutes to hours responsive to neuronal activity and growth factor signaling. Added acyl chain raises partitio

Ref: Linder and Deschenes, Protein Palmitoylation and Membrane Targeting, Nature Reviews Mol Cell Biol 2007.

Which of the following lipid modifications involves thioether bond formation?

Lipid modifications differ in chemistry of linkage and reversibility. N-myristoylation forms amide bond between myristate and N-terminal glycine co-translationally irreversible, palmitoylation forms thioester between 16-carbon palmitate and cysteine thiol reversibly cleaved by acyl protein thioesterases, GPI anchoring forms amide between ethanolamine phosphate and C-terminus plus glycosidic linkages to inositol phospholipid. Prenylation, either farnesylation 15-carbon or geranylgeranylation 20-carbon, occurs at C-terminal CAAX motif where X determines farnesyl vs geranylgeranyl transferase spe

Ref: Wang & Casey, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2016, Protein prenylation and thioether linkage.