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AY‐9944 inhibition of sterol biosynthesis in Chlorella emersonii
Author(s) -
Dickson Leal G.,
Patterson Glenn W.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
lipids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.601
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1558-9307
pISSN - 0024-4201
DOI - 10.1007/bf02531761
Subject(s) - biosynthesis , sterol , biochemistry , biology , cholesterol , chemistry , enzyme
Abstract When Chlorella emersonii , a green alga, was cultured in the presence of 20 ppm AY‐9944, a number of sterols accumulated which appear to be intermediates of sterol biosynthesis in this organism. The sterols isolated include 14α‐methyl‐ergost‐8‐en‐3β‐ol, 14α‐methyl 24S‐stigmast‐8‐en‐3β‐ol, 14α‐methyl ergosta‐8,24(28)‐dien‐3β‐ol and 4α, 14α‐dimethyl 24S‐stigmast‐8‐en‐3β‐ol. Smaller quantities of several other sterols were found in addition to the normally occurring Δ 7 , chondrillasterol and Δ 7 . Control cultures were found to contain, in addition to the normally occurring sterols, smaller quantities of most of the sterols isolated from AY‐9944 inhibited cultures. AY‐9944 is a specific inhibitor of Δ 7 in cholesterol biosynthesis in animals. However, since C. emersonii terminates sterol biosynthesis one step prior to the Δ 7 step, AY‐9944 apparently inhibits sterol biosynthesis prior to this step in this organism. The accumulation of 14α‐methyl sterols in treated cultures suggests that AY‐9944 is an effective inhibitor of the 14α‐methyl removal in C. emersonii .