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Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

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Figure 1 A generalized scheme for human fatty acid metabolism. Gray bars represent<br />

desaturase activities, black arrows represent elongase or chain-shortening activity, <strong>and</strong> the<br />

relative abundance of each fatty acid is represented by its size.<br />

including humans, are capable of acyl chain elongation, the � designation for a<br />

particular double bond is subject to a change in nomenclature with each elongation<br />

of the fatty acid. The � designation proves useful, however, when interpreting the<br />

chemical reactions associated with fatty acids. For instance, desaturases are referred<br />

to by the � designation because their catalytic action is consistent with the stereospecific<br />

insertion of a double bond from the carboxyl end of a fatty acid.<br />

Figure 2 The omega (n) <strong>and</strong> delta (�) numbering systems for palmitoleic acid. �-numbering<br />

starts at the carboxyl terminus carbon <strong>and</strong> n-numbering starts at the methyl terminus<br />

carbon.<br />

Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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