Characterization and function analysis of Elovl4-like elongase gene in golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus)

The elongases of very long chain fatty acids (Elovls), which are key rate-limiting enzymes in the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA) biosynthesis pathway, can extend the carbon chain of PUFAs. To investigate the function of Elovl4 in PUFA biosynthesis of Trachinotus ovatus, we cloned its cDNA sequence (ToElovl4-like), whose open reading frame (ORF) was 792 bp, encoding 263 amino acids. Bioinformatics analysis reveals that the encoded amino acids contained significant structural features of Elovl family such as histidine cassettes, multiple transmembrane regions and ER retention signals. The results of sequence alignment show that Elovl4-like gene was highly conserved, and the similarity between the protein sequence encoded by this gene and other fish was 73%−86%, among which Gadus morhua had the highest similarity of 86%. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Elovl4 mainly clustered into three categories (Elovl4a, Elovl4b and Elovl4-like). Among them, ToElovl4-like was closely related with Elovl4-like of other fish. Real-time PCR shows that ToElovl4-like gene was expressed in all tissues, with the highest mRNA expression in gonads and spleens and the lowest in brain. The heterologous expression of yeast shows that ToElovl4-like could extend 18:2n-6 and 20:5n-3 to 20:2n-6 and 22:5n-3, respectively. The study provides a theoretical basis for understanding the biosynthesis of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA).