Fig. 2

Desaturation of fatty acids by stearoyl CoA desaturase (SCD). SCD1 catalyzes the introduction of a double bond between carbons 9 and 10 of a saturated long chain acyl CoA, such as stearyl CoA. In the reaction, two electrons flow through an electron transport-desaturase complex composed by cytochrome b5 reductase, cytochrome b5 and SCD1. The final acceptor of the electrons is molecular O₂, which is reduced to H₂O