Fig 1.

Wax ester pathway. Shown are the proteins that comprise the current pathway for wax ester biosynthesis in lipid-accumulating bacteria such as M. aquaeolei VT8. Various proteins of the pathway are numbered, including the wax synthase (1), fatty acyl-CoA reductase (2), fatty aldehyde reductase (3), fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase (4), fatty acyl-CoA synthetase (5), fatty acyl-ACP synthetase (6), and thioesterase (7). Values shown following specific enzymes in parentheses indicate the number of known or putative homologs found in M. aquaeolei VT8. Enzymes shown in bold and with darker arrows are those featured in this study.