Plants use fatty acids to synthesize acyl lipids for many different cellular, physiological, and defensive roles. These roles include the synthesis of essential membrane, storage, or surface lipids, as well as the production of various fatty acid‐derived metabolites used for signaling or defense. Fatty acids are activated for metabolic processing via a thioester linkage to either coenzyme A or acyl carrier protein. Acyl synthetases metabolically activate fatty acids to their thioester forms, and acyl thioesterases deactivate fatty acyl thioesters to free fatty acids by hydrolysis. These two enzyme classes therefore play critical roles in lipid metabolism. This review highlights the surprisingly complex and varying roles of fatty acyl synthetases in plant lipid metabolism, including roles in the intracellular trafficking of fatty acids. This review also surveys the many specialized fatty acyl thioesterases characterized to date in plants, which produce a great diversity of fatty acid products in a tissue‐specific manner. While some acyl thioesterases produce fatty acids that clearly play roles in plant‐insect or plant‐microbial interactions, most plant acyl thioesterases have yet to be fully characterized both in terms of their substrate specificities and their functions. The biotechnological applications of plant acyl thioesterases and synthetases are also discussed, as there is significant interest in these enzymes as catalysts for the sustainable production of fatty acids and their derivatives for industrial uses.

中文翻译：

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植物脂质代谢中的脂肪酰基合成酶和硫酯酶：多种功能和生物技术应用。

植物使用脂肪酸来合成酰基脂质，用于许多不同的细胞、生理和防御作用。这些作用包括合成必需的膜、储存或表面脂质，以及用于信号或防御的各种脂肪酸衍生代谢物的产生。脂肪酸被活化代谢处理经由与辅酶 A 或酰基载体蛋白的硫酯键。酰基合成酶通过代谢将脂肪酸活化为其硫酯形式，酰基硫酯酶通过水解使脂肪酰基硫酯失活为游离脂肪酸。因此，这两种酶类在脂质代谢中起关键作用。这篇综述强调了脂肪酰基合成酶在植物脂质代谢中令人惊讶的复杂和不同的作用，包括在细胞内脂肪酸运输中的作用。本综述还调查了迄今为止在植物中表征的许多专门的脂肪酰基硫酯酶，它们以组织特异性方式产生多种脂肪酸产物。虽然一些酰基硫酯酶产生的脂肪酸显然在植物-昆虫或植物-微生物相互作用中起作用，大多数植物酰基硫酯酶的底物特异性和功能尚未完全表征。还讨论了植物酰基硫酯酶和合成酶的生物技术应用，因为人们对这些酶作为用于工业用途的脂肪酸及其衍生物的可持续生产的催化剂具有重大兴趣。