Esterification of fatty acids

"Esterification of fatty acids" refers to the **chemical or enzymatic process** by which a fatty acid reacts with an alcohol—commonly glycerol—to form an ester, such as triglycerides. This is a fundamental biochemical reaction in lipid metabolism and energy storage. In biological systems, this reaction is catalyzed by various enzymes, including acyltransferases and specific enzymes like the "fatty acid modifying enzyme" (FAME) found in Staphylococcus aureus[2]. FAME can esterify straight-chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with varying efficiency depending on chain length and saturation[2]. The term "esterification of fatty acids" describes a **process**, not a single protein, receptor, or druggable molecular entity. Therefore, it is not considered a therapeutic target itself but rather an important metabolic pathway involving multiple enzymes such as lipases and esterases[1][3][4]. Because "esterification of fatty acids" does not refer to one specific molecule or receptor but instead to a general biochemical transformation carried out by several different enzymes across species and tissues, it cannot be mapped directly to canonical forms used for drug targets. The phrase “esterification of fatty acids” describes a chemical/enzymatic process rather than an individual protein or therapeutic target; thus it should not be treated as such for structured data extraction purposes.[1][2][3]

Other names

Fatty acid esterificationEsterification of fatty acids by fatty acid modifying enzyme (FAME)[2]