Discussion:
Fatty acid biosynthesis
Using your knowledge of fatty acid biosynthesis, provide an explanation for the following experimental observations:
(a) The addition of uniformly labeled [14C] acetyl-CoA to a soluble liver fraction yields palmitate uniformly labeled with 14C.
(b) However, the addition of a trace of uniformly labeled [14C]acetyl-CoA in the presence of an excess of unlabelled malonyl-CoA to a soluble liver fraction yields palmitate labeled with 14C only in C-15 and C-16.