Farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP), also known as farnesyl diphosphate (FDP), is the precursor to all sesquiterpenes, which comprises thousand of compounds. These include all sesquiterpenes as well as sterols and carotenoids. It is also used in the synthesis of CoQ (part of the electron transport chain), as well as dehydrodolichol diphosphate (a precursor of dolichol, which transports proteins to the ER lumen for N-glycosylation).

Biosynthesis

Farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (a prenyl transferase) catalyzes sequential condensation reactions of dimethylallyl pyrophosphate with 2 units of 3-isopentenyl pyrophosphate to form farnesyl pyrophosphate:

Pharmacology

The above reactions are inhibited by bisphosphonates (used for osteoporosis). Farnesyl pyrophosphate is a selective agonist of TRPV3.

Related compounds