Proteins involved in lipid metabolism (overview pg. 2)

• Overview (pg.1) (pg.2)
• FcsA
• Plin (pg.1)(pg.2)
• Smt1, Ldp, Net4
• Dgat1
• Dgat2
• FcsB (pg.1)(pg.2)

Top: Fatty acids (FA) added to the medium are internalized and converted to triacylglycerol (TAG) in the endoplasmic reticulum. Hydrophobic TAG molecules coalesce between the leaflets of one ER membrane and bulge out. The final storage form is a lens of TAG (yellow) surrounded by a membrane monolayer (thin black line), a so called lipid droplet. Lipid droplets often aggregate into grape-like structures.

Right: Accumulation of lipid droplets over several hours after the addition of fatty acid.

Function: Lipid droplets are an economic storage form of energy used in virtually all organisms.

Reference:

• Du, X., Barisch, C., Paschke, P., Herrfurth, C., Bertinetti, O., Pawolleck, N., Otto, H., Rühling, H., Feussner, I., Herberg, F.W., Maniak, M.: Dictyostelium lipid droplets host novel proteins. Eukaryotic Cell 12, 1517-1529, 2013