The present invention relates to proteins or polypeptides involved in
fatty acid synthesis, such as
fatty acid synthase (FAS). Said
protein comprises one or more polypeptide chains wherein said polypeptide chains comprises one or more subunits having at least one
amino acid substitution as defined resulting in altered activity of
fatty acid synthesis. The present invention relates further to
nucleic acid molecules encoding the proteins or the polypeptide domains as well to host cells containing said
nucleic acid molecules, e.g. in form of vectors. The present invention describes further a method for production of fatty acids comprising the cultivation of the host cells according to the present invention as well as the use of the
protein according to the present invention or the
nucleic acid according to the present invention or the host
cell according to the present invention for the production of biofuels, the production of fine chemicals, flavoring compounds, the determination of fungicides and actinobacterial biocides. Moreover,
in silico methods are described allowing the identification of molecules capable of selectively altering the activity of an enzymatic domain present in the FAS or altering a step of
fatty acid synthesis by FAS I comprising determining and modelling molecules interacting under physiological conditions with at least one
amino acid in a
protein as defined herein. Further, a method of identifying a compound capable of altering at least one of the enzymatic activities of FAS is provided including the step of bringing into contact a candidate compound with the FAS as defined herein and determining whether said candidate demonstrates any interaction with the FAS. Finally, a protein is provided, namely, a mutated ACP which results in alteration of FAS activity.