Glyceronephosphate-O-Acyltransferase (GNPAT)

Dihydroxyacetonephosphate acyltransferase, a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of ether phospholipids, is localized exclusively within peroxisomes. Thai et al. (1997) extracted the DHAPAT enzyme from rabbit Harderian gland peroxisomes. From peptide sequences matching EST clones, they isolated a DHAPAT cDNA by screening a human brain cDNA library. The DHAPAT cDNA encodes a 680-amino acid peptide containing a C-terminal type 1 peroxisomal targeting signal (PTS1).

Ofman et al. (1998) determined the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the enzyme isolated from human placenta and used this sequence to identify a DHAPAT cDNA. They confirmed that DHAPAT contains a PTS1 sequence (alanine-glycine-leucine) at the extreme C terminus.