Acyl Coenzyme A Thioesterase 9 (ACOT9)

ACOT9 is a mitochondrial acyl-CoA thioesterase of unknown function. Two transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.The thioesterase function of p48 was further demonstrated against long chain acyl-CoAs in a spectrophotometric assay. Furthermore, data obtained from sequence analysis showed that p48 contained a mitochondrial targeting signal, cleaved in mature protein as assessed by microsequencing. The mitochondrial localization of both endogenous and transfected p48 was confirmed by confocal microscopy. These results indicate that p48, called MT-ACT48 (mitochondrial acyl-CoA thioesterase of 48 kDa), defines a novel family of mitochondrial long chain acyl-CoA thioesterases.