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Peroxisomes as a Waystation on the Path to Glycolipid Biosynthesis

Peroxisomes are conserved eukaryotic organelles with an important role in fatty acid oxidation. They provide the fatty acids required by the acyltransferases Mac1, Mac2, and Mac3 for MEL biosynthesis (Freitag et al., 2014).

We are interested in the structural differences of the Mac proteins and aim to identify, using chimeric mutants, the regions that influence the length of the fatty acids incorporated.

Recently, in a collaborative effort, the differential localization of Mac3 and Mac1 proteins was elucidated (Bäcker et al., 2025).

Relevant Publications

Bäcker, N., Ast, J., Martorana, D., Renicke, C., Berger, J., Mais, C.N., Christ, M., Stehlik, T., Heimerl, T., Wernet, V., Taxis, C., Pané-Farré, J., Bölker, M., Klatt, J.M., Sandrock, B., Schink, K.O., Bange, G., Freitag, J. (2025). Peroxisomal core structures segregate diverse metabolic pathways. Nat Commun 20, 16:1802.

Freitag, J., Ast, J., Linne, U., Stehlik, T., Martorana, D., Bölker, M., Sandrock, B. (2014). Peroxisomes contribute to biosynthesis of extracellular glycolipids in fungi. Mol Microbiol 93, 24–36.