Talk:Fatty acid synthesis

Clarification needed

"Although this reaction is thermodynamically unfavourable, the evolution of CO₂ drives the reaction forward." This statement is confused, I think the author meant that the reaction is enthalpically unfavourable but is driven by the favourable entropy increase due to CO₂ release, hence giving an overall negative Gibbs Free Energy. After all, entropy is part of thermodynamics :), could this be clarified? I wanted to check the author's meaning before I corrected it myself. Azo bob (talk) 20:17, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

No references

There are no references what so ever for the article, and also the last link is dead. I'm really no expert on this subject, especially concerning human physiology. Panoramix303 (talk) 17:20, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Redone

This page has been completely redone as part of a project for Microbial Physiology at Colorado State University. It pertains mostly to fatty acid synthesis in prokaryotes. All appropriate references have been provided. The information has also been reviewed by professors of Microbial Physiology at CSU. 2 May 2011 Bochyboch (talk)

For future reference, new entries are added using the "New section" button. This feature should automatically apply the correct styles, as well as a signature of the author and date of entry. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 17:25, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

File:Aerobic desaturation.png Nominated for speedy Deletion

An image used in this article, File:Aerobic desaturation.png, has been nominated for speedy deletion at Wikimedia Commons for the following reason: Other speedy deletions What should I do? Don't panic; deletions can take a little longer at Commons than they do on Wikipedia. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion (although please review Commons guidelines before doing so). The best way to contest this form of deletion is by posting on the image talk page. If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use) If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used. If the image has already been deleted you may want to try Commons Undeletion Request To take part in any discussion, or to review a more detailed deletion rationale please visit the relevant image page (File:Aerobic desaturation.png) This is Bot placed notification, another user has nominated/tagged the image --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 19:41, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Consider ordinary readers

ATTENTION: For this and other very technical articles like it, please consider ordinary readers by providing an explanation that can be understood by a lay person. . I am reading this article because i want to be able to critically read an article elsewhere written by someone calling themselves DrBenKim (name of website) I don't agree with his conclusions but i know some what he is saying is sensible. I would like to understand what he is talking about better. In this article he refers to Ketones being made from the liver to fuel a fasting brain. This may be true but i wanted to know more about ketones - which on wikipedia is another very technical article. In there i read "fatty acid synthetic" but can't understand hardly a sentence of this entry on wikipedia Makeitcomprehensibletolaypeople (talk) 08:23, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Fatty acid synthesis. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110721024500/http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/lipids/fa_cycl/file.pdf to http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/lipids/fa_cycl/file.pdf
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100112034226/http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/Lipids/fa_branc/index.htm to http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/lipids/fa_branc/index.htm
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/lipid-synthesis.html

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Wrong image/definition of omega-numbering

I noticed that the image for carbon numbering in the footnote is wrong, and the text is probably wrong too. In the omega-notation, the carbons are numbered "ω", "ω−1", "ω−2", etc. That is, "ω−1" is the next-to-last carbon, not the last one. See File:Fatty acid carbon numbering.png for the correct image, and for the correct explanation. All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 03:23, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

Could someone who is an expert in the field of fatty acid synthesis add a section to the article regarding the pathway of mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis (mtFASII)? This pathway is significant and still missing. Abvdj (talk) 17:39, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Updating Subsections & Nomenclature

I am currently working on drafts for subsections on synthesis of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), general fatty acid nomenclature (which I realize has become more necessary), and further modifications to/beyond palmitate. I should have them up within the next day. Rkott 04:21, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

Updating Reaction Schematics (2026)

After drafting a thorough review of fatty acid synthesis in another article (Lipid Droplets), I will be inserting the information into this article as well. As of today, I have only covered an in-depth review of the first six reactions (though they have been summarized up unto the formation of palmitate). My review primarily references a great and thorough article (Chandel, 2021), which I think can be of use for anyone looking to expand the reaction schematics (step-by-step) up unto formation of palmitate.

I will insert a section that details at least the first six reactions (as is seen in Lipid Droplets). It would be beneficial (for at least biochemistry students at the undergraduate level) to have a step-wise explanation with schematics for each reaction. After my insert, what will remain (in terms of individual reaction schematics and step-wise descriptions) for others to expand on is the second elongation cycle and beyond (cycles 2-7, basically). It would be cool if we could one day build out an entire step-wise databank of all relevant reactions, even if need be through other article pages (ie., for other elongase and desaturase reactions, etc).

I would greatly appreciate if we could be consistent in the formatting of step-wise reaction descriptions. I will paste the general format I have used here:

Reaction 1. Formation of Malonyl-CoA

In the first reaction of fatty acid synthesis, acetyl-CoA is irreversibly carboxylated by acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) to form malonyl-CoA. The formation of malonyl-CoA is the rate-limiting step of fatty acid synthesis.

This step provides the malonyl-CoA substrate for use in fatty acid synthesis.

Note that within the source code, the top div style="float:right; width:350px; text-align:center; margin-right:1em; margin-left:3em;" line allows for reaction schematics to flow vertically along the right-hand side of the page.

This format also allows for shorter reaction descriptions to be used within the left-hand margin. Please do not directly copy and paste reaction descriptions from the left-hand margin into the caption of the reaction schematics. It is redundant for the reader to see the same information twice; please reword the sentence for the sake of the reader's edification.

Please refrain from using more than 1 name for the enzyme catalyzing a reaction. While variations in naming conventions exist from species to species, the information begins to look jumbled if not disconcerted when 4 naming variations are copied and pasted after 1 name of a hyperlinked enzyme. If there are variations, a great (and simple) addition for this article may be a section (towards the end) which details the naming conventions across species for the enzyme(s) of each reaction. Rkott 01:57, 21 January 2026 (UTC)