Mechanism for adaptive modification during cold acclimation of phospholipid acyl chain composition in Tetrahymena. II. Activities of 2-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphorylcholine and 2-acyl-sn-glycerol-3- phosphorylethanolamine acyltransferases involving the reacylation.

The deacylation-reacylation process is very important for the alteration of phospholipid fatty acyl composition on lowering of growth temperature in Tetrahymena pyriformis (Kameyama, Y., Yoshioka, S. and Nozawa, Y., (1984) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 793, 28-33). Microsomes isolated from Tetrahymena cells have reacylation activities not only for 1-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphorylcholine (1-acyl-GPC) and 1-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphorylethanolamine (1-acyl-GPE) but also for 2-acyl-GPC and 2-acyl-GPE. Unsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs were in general much better substrates than saturated fatty acyl-CoAs for acylations of 1-acyl-GPC and 1-acyl-GPE. The acylation rates for 1-acyl-GPE were almost the same in palmitoleoyl-CoA, oleoyl-CoA, linoleoyl-CoA and gamma-linoleoyl-CoA. However, the acylation activity for 1-acyl-GPC was more than 2-fold higher with palmitoleoyl-CoA than with any other unsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs. In contrast, both 2-acyl-GPC and 2-acyl-GPE acyltransferases did not show a distinct preference for various acyl-CoAs, although palmitoyl-CoA was incorporated into both 2-acylphospholipids at higher rates than into 1-acylphospholipids. These specificities for various acyl-CoAs of 1-acyl- and 2-acyl-GPC and 1-acyl- and 2-acyl-GPE acyltransferases were not changed in the microsomes isolated from cells grown isothermally at 39 degrees C and 15 degrees C and cells shifted from 39 degrees C to 15 degrees C. However, the acylating ratio of linoleoyl-CoA to palmitoyl-CoA, which were chosen as typical unsaturated and saturated fatty acyl-CoAs, in the microsomes from cells grown at 15 degrees C was 1.5-3.0-times higher than in the microsomes from 39 degrees C-grown cells in four acyltransferase activities. These results suggest that the changes of acyl-CoA specificities in reacylation enzyme activities during temperature down-shift would make little contribution to the increase in unsaturated fatty acids in phospholipids, although reacylating enzymes from isothermally grown cells at lower temperature would partially participate in those increases.