A rapid method for the purification of fatty acid synthetase from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

1. 1. A rapid method for the isolation and purification of small quantities of highly active fatty acid synthetase (FAS) from several strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is presented. 2. 2. The purification procedure which is the shortest reported to this date (18hr), involves the release of the enzyme by either cell wall digestion with Zymolyase 60000 or cell wall disruption by glass beads, followed by 35–50% ammonium sulfate fractionation, desalting by Sephadex G-25 chromatography, then calcium phosphate gel treatment, concentration by 50% ammonium sulfate precipitation, sedimentation of the enzyme in the ultracentrifuge and finally, column chromatography on DEAE Bio-Gel A. 3. 3. Fatty acid synthetase prepared by the cell breakage method, was found to be homogeneous according to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), SDS-Tris-glycine disc gel electrophoresis and immunoelectrophoresis criteria. However, enzyme prepared from Zymolyase treated cells showed several proteolytic bands in addition to FAS bands, on SDS-PAGE. 4. 4. Enzyme obtained by both methods of cell breakage, showed a similar behavior throughout the purification procedure and gave a similar yield of enzyme of high specific activity (4800–7200 nmol/min/mg) that remained stable for several months at −85°C.