Identification and Characterization of the Delta-12 Fatty Acid Desaturase from Euglena gracilis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Fatty acid desaturase 12 (FAD12) is a key enzyme in fatty acid biosynthesis, responsible for converting oleic acid to linoleic acid through desaturase activity. Euglena gracilis (Euglena) is an emerging platform for the industrial production of various metabolites, including lipids. However, a comprehensive understanding of Euglena’s fatty acid biosynthesis pathways remains incomplete, posing a significant barrier to the commercialization of Euglena bioproducts. To address this gap, we employed a bioinformatics approach to identify a Euglena gracilis FAD12 (Eg FAD12). We analyzed the evolutionary relationship of Eg FAD12 with its homologs from other organisms and revealed that the three canonical histidine box motifs are conserved among FAD12s. To characterize EgFAD12, we cloned it into the pEAQ-hyperstrans vector and overexpressed it in Nicotiana benthamiana to take advantage of its endogenous fatty acid pool, which could act as a substrate. The heterologous expression of FAD12 in N. benthamiana led to an increased linoleic acid content, demonstrating the suspected desaturase activity. To further confirm the function of Eg FAD12, we performed CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout of Eg FAD12 in Euglena, which resulted in a drastic reduction in linoleic acid (C18:2) without compromising biomass yield or lipid content. This work advances our understanding of fatty acid biosynthesis in Euglena and will aid in its adoption as a platform for producing customized lipids.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".