Anti-FADS2

Protein function: Involved in the biosynthesis of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) from the essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) linoleic acid (LA) (18:2n-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) (18:3n-3) precursors, acting as a fatty acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) desaturase that introduces a cis double bond at carbon 6 of the fatty acyl chain. Catalyzes the first and rate limiting step in this pathway which is the desaturation of LA (18:2n-6) and ALA (18:3n-3) into gamma-linoleate (GLA) (18:3n-6) and stearidonate (18:4n-3), respectively (PubMed:12713571). Subsequently, in the biosynthetic pathway of HUFA n- 3 series, it desaturates tetracosapentaenoate (24:5n-3) to tetracosahexaenoate (24:6n-3), which is then converted to docosahexaenoate (DHA)(22:6n-3), an important lipid for nervous system function. Desaturates hexadecanate (palmitate) to produce 6Z-hexadecenoate (sapienate), a fatty acid unique to humans and major component of human sebum, that has been implicated in the development of acne and may have potent antibacterial activity (PubMed:12713571). It can also desaturate (11E)-octadecenoate (trans- vaccenoate, the predominant trans fatty acid in human milk) at carbon 6 generating (6Z,11E)-octadecadienoate. In addition to Delta-6 activity, this enzyme exhibits Delta-8 activity with slight biases toward n-3 fatty acyl-CoA substrates. [The UniProt Consortium] Buffer: 40% glycerol and PBS (pH 7.2). 0.02% sodium azide is added as preservative. Highest antigen sequence identity to mouse: 85% and to rat: 84%