Ubiquinone (also known as Coenzyme Q or CoQ) biosynthesis occurs on the inner mitochondrial membrane and includes four main steps (i) the synthesis of the benzoquinone head ring from tyrosine; (ii) the synthesis of the isoprenoid chain tail; (iii) the condensation of head and tail; and (iv) the sequential modification of the benzoquinone head ring. The isoprenoid chain varies in length depending on the species. In D. melanogaster, there are 3 species of coenzyme Q ranging from 8 to 10 (CoQ8 to CoQ10) isoprenoid units with CoQ9 being the main species. CoQ exists in three oxidation states: fully reduced ubiquinol, the radical semiquinone intermediate and the fully oxidized ubiquinone form allowing it to act as an electron carrier. Its major roles are as an electron shuttle in oxidative phosphorylation and as an antioxidant. (Adapted from PMID:34198496, FBrf0260507 and FBrf0261808.)
UBIQUINONE BIOSYNTHESIS
Notes
Fdx2 is a paralog of Fdx1 and both are iron-sulfur proteins that mediate electron transfer. However, Fdx2 (the ortholog of human FDX1) is only involved in steroidogenesis so far and therefore is not included in the gene list.
Unable to display GO ribbon stack for gene groups with more than 100 members.
External Data
Note: The Drosophila pathways shown at external resources are computed
and may therefore differ from the manually curated and verified pathway shown above.
