Table 3.

Fish fatty acyl desaturases (Fads) investigated for the ability to desaturate tetracosapentaenoic acid (24:5n−3) to tetracosahexaenoic acid (24:6n−3). Their known desaturation activities and the studies in which they were published are indicated accordingly.

Species	Desaturase namea	Reported activityb	GenBank Accession no.	Reference
Scyliorhinus canicula	ScyΔ6Fads2	Δ6	JN657544	32
Arapaima gigas	AgΔ6Fads2	Δ6	AOO1978	51
Anguilla japonica	AjΔ6Fads2	Δ6	AHY22375	53
Danio rerio	DrΔ6Δ5Fads2	Δ6, Δ5	AAG25710	35
Clarias gariepinus	CgΔ6Δ5Fads2	Δ6, Δ5	AMR43366	38
Salmo salar	SsΔ6Fads2	Δ6c	AAR21624	54
S. salar	SsΔ5Fads2	Δ5	AAL82631	36
Oncorhynchus mykiss	OmΔ6Fads2	Δ6	AAK26745	54
Chirostoma estor	CeΔ6Δ5Fads2	Δ6, Δ5	AHX39207	29
C. estor	CeΔ4Fads2	Δ4	AHX39206	29
Siganus canaliculatus	ScΔ6Δ5Fads2	Δ6, Δ5	ABR12315	27
S. canaliculatus	ScΔ4Fads2	Δ4	ADJ29913	27
Sparus aurata	SaΔ6Fads2	Δ6	AAL17639	55
Nibea mitsukurii	NmΔ6Fads2	Δ6	AJD80650	25
Oreochromis niloticus	OnΔ4Fads2	Δ4d	XP_003440520	Present study

^aScy, Scyliorhinus canicula; Ag, Arapaima gigas; Aj, Anguilla japonica; Dr, Danio rerio; Cg, Clarias gariepinus; Ss, Salmo salar; Om, Oncorhychus mykiss; Ce, Chirostoma estor; Sc, Siganus canaliculatus; Sa, Sparus aurata; Nm, Nibea mitsukurii; On, Oreochromis niloticus. ^bΔ8 desaturase activities of some of these desaturases and reported in the corresponding publication are not indicated in the interests of clarity. ^cRefers to “Fads2_a” as termed by Monroig et al.⁵⁶. ^dFunctional characterisation of OnΔ4Fads2 was carried out in the present study.