| Description | Itaconic acid is a dicarboxylic acid that is methacrylic acid in which one of the methyl hydrogens is substituted by a carboxylic acid group. It has a role as a fungal metabolite and a human metabolite. It is a dicarboxylic acid and an olefinic compound. It derives from a succinic acid. It is a conjugate acid of an itaconate(2-). This dicarboxylic acid is a white solid that is soluble in water, ethanol, and acetone. Historically, itaconic acid was obtained by the distillation of citric acid, but currently it is produced by fermentation. The name itaconic acid was devised as an anagram of aconitic acid, another derivative of citric acid. Itaconic acid, also known as itaconate, belongs to the class of organic compounds known as branched fatty acids. These are fatty acids containing a branched chain. Itaconic acid is a very hydrophobic molecule, practically insoluble in water, and relatively neutral. Since the 1960s, it is produced industrially by the fermentation of carbohydrates such as glucose or molasses using fungi such as Aspergillus itaconicus or Aspergillus terreus. For A. terreus the itaconate pathway is mostly elucidated. The generally accepted route for itaconate is via glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and a decarboxylation of cis-aconitate to itaconate via cis-aconitate-decarboxylase. The smut fungus Ustilago maydis uses an alternative route. Cis-aconitate is converted to the thermodynamically favoured trans-aconitate via aconitate-Δ-isomerase (Adi1). trans-Aconitate is further decarboxylated to itaconate by trans-aconitate-decarboxylase (Tad1). Itaconic acid is also produced in cells of macrophage lineage. It was shown that itaconate is a covalent inhibitor of the enzyme isocitrate lyase in vitro. As such, itaconate may possess antibacterial activities against bacteria expressing isocitrate lyase (such as Salmonella enterica and Mycobacterium tuberculosis). It is also sythesized in the laboratory, where dry distillation of citric acid affords itaconic anhydride, which undergoes hydrolysis to itaconic acid. |
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