Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) plays a critical role in the regulation of fatty acid metabolism and its two isoforms, ACCα and ACCβ, appear to have distinct functions in the control of fatty acid synthesis and fatty acid oxidation, respectively. They are regulated by similar short-term mechanisms of allosteric activation by citrate, and reversible phosphorylation and inactivation, and there is clearly interaction between these mechanisms. AMP-activated protein kinase is the important physiological ACC kinase for both isoforms and yet there is a potential physiological role for cAMP-dependent protein kinase in the hormonally mediated inactivation of ACCα, and phosphorylation of ACCβ in its unique N-terminus.