Antoni R. Slabas

TL;DR: The kinetic mechanism of plastidial G3PAT from squash and the order of substrate binding using acyl‐acyl carrier protein (acyl‐ACP) substrates are reported and it is determined that the reaction will proceed with C4:0‐CoA, C6:0•CoA and C12:0-ACP substrates, allowing a wider choice of acyl groups for future co‐crystallisation studies.

TL;DR: To identify castor oil-biosynthetic enzymes and inform strategies to improve ricinoleic acid yields, MudPIT analysis on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) purified from developing castor bean endosperm was performed and candidate enzymes for all steps of triacylglycerol synthesis were identified.

TL;DR: Crystals of squash G3PAT have been obtained by the hanging-drop method of vapour diffusion using PEG 4000 as the precipitant, with approximate unit-cell parameters most likely to belong to space group P2(1)2( 1)2 (1) 2(1), and X-ray diffraction data to 1.3.9 A resolution have been collected in-house using a MAR 345 imaging-plate system.

TL;DR: Results are consistent with there being two arginine residues either at the active site of the enzyme or in an environment which is protected from phenylglyoxal by a conformational change induced by coenzyme A binding.