Phylogenomic reconstruction of archaeal fatty acid metabolism

Summary While certain archaea appear to synthesize and/or metabolize fatty acids, the respective pathways still remain obscure. By analysing the genomic distribution of the key lipid‐related enzymes, we were able to identify the likely components of the archaeal pathway of fatty acid metabolism, namely, a combination of the enzymes of bacterial‐type β ‐oxidation of fatty acids [acyl‐coenzyme A ( CoA ) dehydrogenase, enoyl‐ CoA hydratase and 3‐hydroxyacyl‐ CoA dehydrogenase] with paralogs of the archaeal acetyl‐ CoA C ‐acetyltransferase, an enzyme of the mevalonate biosynthesis pathway. These three β ‐oxidation enzymes working in the reverse direction could potentially catalyse biosynthesis of fatty acids, with paralogs of acetyl‐ CoA C ‐acetyltransferase performing addition of C 2