Malonyl/Acetyltransferase (MAT) Knockout Decreases Triacylglycerol and Medium-Chain Fatty Acid Contents in Goat Mammary Epithelial Cells

Malonyl/acetyltransferase (MAT) is a crucial functional domain of fatty acid synthase (FASN), which plays a vital role in the de novo synthesis of fatty acids in vivo. Milk fatty acids are secreted by mammary epithelial cells. Mammary epithelial cells are the units of mammary gland development and function, and it is a common model for the study of mammary gland tissue development and lactation. This study aimed to investigate the effects of MAT deletion on the synthesis of triacylglycerol and medium-chain fatty acids. The MAT domain was knocked out by CRISPR/Cas9 in the goat mammary epithelial cells (GMECs), and in MAT knockout GMECs, the mRNA level of FASN was decreased by approximately 91.19% and the protein level decreased by 51.83%. The results showed that MAT deletion downregulated the contents of triacylglycerol and medium-chain fatty acids (p < 0.05) and increased the content of acetyl-Coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) (p < 0.001). Explicit deletion of MAT resulted in significant drop of FASN, which resulted in downregulation of LPL, GPAM, DGAT2, PLIN2, XDH, ATGL, LXRα, and PPARγ genes in GMECs (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, mRNA expression levels of ACC, FASN, DGAT2, SREBP1, and LXRα decreased following treatment with acetyl-CoA (p < 0.05). Our data reveals that FASN plays critical roles in the synthesis of medium-chain fatty acids and triacylglycerol in GMECs.