The synthesis of key intermediates in the eukaryotic biosynthetic pathway of ubiquinone (Q) and the biotransformation of these materials with yeast (S. cerevisiae) mitochondria are described. The synthesis of Q aromatic precursors 2, 3, and 4 (n= 3 in all cases) relies on the palladium (O) catalyzed coupling of farnesyl tributylstannane with suitably functionalized aryl halides. Preliminary experiments show that incubation of synthetic substrate 3 with ...