Sphingosine

Sphingosine is a compound that forms a primary part of sphingomyelin, an important phospholipid. Sphingosine can be phosphorylated in vivo via two kinases, sphingosine kinase type 1 and sphingosine kinase type 2.

Synthesis

Sphingosine is synthesized from palmitoyl CoA and serine in a condensation requires to yield dehydrosphingosine. Dehydrosphingosine is then reduced by NADPH to dihydrosphingosine, and finally oxidized by FAD to sphingosine.