UniProt Summary: Component of a lipid metabolic pathway that catalyzes biosynthesis of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) from precursor essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) linoleic acid (LA) (18:2n-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) (18:3n-3). 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- linoleic acid (GLA) (18:3n-6) and stearidonic acid (18:4n-3) respectively and other desaturation steps. Highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) play pivotal roles in many biological functions. It catalizes as well the introduction of a cis double bond in palmitate to produce the mono-unsaturated fatty acid sapienate, the most abundant fatty acid in sebum. {ECO:0000269|PubMed:12713571, ECO:0000269|PubMed:9867867}.
Pfam DomainsGO Terms
Pfam Domains
Cyt-b5
FA desaturase
GO Terms
linoleoyl-CoA desaturase activity
stearoyl-CoA 9-desaturase activity
alpha-linolenic acid metabolic process
linoleic acid metabolic process
unsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic process
unsaturated fatty acid metabolic process
long-chain fatty acid metabolic process
fatty acid biosynthetic process
monocarboxylic acid biosynthetic process
carboxylic acid biosynthetic process
organic acid biosynthetic process
fatty acid metabolic process
drug metabolic process
monocarboxylic acid metabolic process
lipid biosynthetic process
small molecule biosynthetic process
carboxylic acid metabolic process
endoplasmic reticulum membrane
cellular lipid metabolic process
oxidation-reduction process
oxoacid metabolic process
organic acid metabolic process
lipid metabolic process
integral component of plasma membrane
small molecule metabolic process
membrane
CRISPR Data
Compound HitMost Correlated Genes in ChemogenomicsTissues where Essential in the Avana Dataset (DepMap 20Q1)