Acyl Coenzyme A Thioesterase 7 (ACOT7)

ACOT7 encodes a member of the acyl coenzyme family. The encoded protein hydrolyzes the CoA thioester of palmitoyl-CoA and other long-chain fatty acids. Decreased expression of this gene may be associated with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms with different subcellular locations have been characterized. The deduced protein contains 338 amino acids and shares 95% identity with rat Bach. Northern blot analysis detected a 1.9-kb BACH transcript in human brain RNA. Biochemical analysis of human brain homogenates showed that BACH is a cytosolic enzyme. SDS-PAGE detected BACH at 43 kD, but gel filtration detected BACH at about 100 kD, indicating that the protein forms multimers.