Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model organism to study the role of small molecules in biological signaling. Small-molecule pheromones and hormones made by C. elegans influence its development, metabolism, fertility, and life span. Because these signaling molecules are also found in parasitic nematode species, studies of chemical signaling in C. elegans will help us design chemical tools to interfere with the life cycles of parasitic species. Among those signaling molecules, C. elegans produces a hybrid polyketide-nonribosomal peptide, nemamide, which promotes recovery from and survival during starvation-induced larval arrest. Nemamide is biosynthesized by polyketide synthase and nonribosomal synthetase in an assembly line manner. However, why nemamide is synthesized in C. elegans still remains clarified. Investigation on the enzymatic steps of nemamide biosynthesis will elucidate how PKSs and NRPSs contribute to nematode metabolism and how nemamide biosynthesis is regulated. An accessory enzyme ACS-24 is an acyl-CoA synthetase discovered by genome mining, potentially activating fatty acids into fatty-acyl CoA at the beginning of this biosynthetic pathway. To study the catalytic efficiency of ACS-24 for different fatty acids substrates, we tested C7-C11 fatty acids, in particular, several C10 fatty acids with various configurations of double bonds. We found that ACS-24 prefers medium-chain substrates, C9 and C10 fatty acids. Significantly, ACS-24 has a good enzymatic activity for (E)-3-decenoic acid and (Z)-4-decenoic acid. The synthesis of substrates and enzymatic assay results will be presented.

Enzymatic assay of a potential enzyme to provide insight into the initiation of the biosynthesis of nemamide

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.