Fatty acyl-CoA reductase 2

FAR2
Identifiers
Aliases	FAR2, MLSTD1, SDR10E2, HEL-S-81, fatty acyl-CoA reductase 2
External IDs	OMIM: 616156; MGI: 2687035; GeneCards: FAR2
Enzyme activity
Gene location (Human)
Chr.	Chromosome 12 (human)
End	29,341,121 bp
Gene location (Mouse)
Chr.	Chromosome 6 (mouse)
End	148,084,256 bp
RNA expression pattern
	Top expressed in
	skin of thigh; ; mucosa of transverse colon; ; bone marrow cell; ; mucosa of sigmoid colon; ; rectum; ; vulva; ; Achilles tendon; ; prefrontal cortex; ; trabecular bone; ; epithelium of colon;
	Top expressed in
	skin of external ear; ; skin of abdomen; ; lip; ; medial dorsal nucleus; ; medial geniculate nucleus; ; lateral geniculate nucleus; ; skin of back; ; jejunum; ; duodenum; ; Paneth cell;
	More reference expression data
	n/a
Gene ontology
Molecular function	fatty-acyl-CoA reductase (alcohol-forming) activity; oxidoreductase activity; alcohol-forming fatty acyl-CoA reductase activity;
Cellular component	integral component of membrane; peroxisomal membrane; peroxisomal matrix; membrane; integral component of peroxisomal membrane; peroxisome;
Biological process	long-chain fatty-acyl-CoA metabolic process; lipid metabolism; wax biosynthetic process;
	Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
Databases	NCBI: entry; OMA: entry
	55711
	330450
	ENSG00000064763
	ENSMUSG00000030303
	Q96K12
	Q7TNT2
	NM_001271783; NM_001271784; NM_018099
	NM_178797; NM_001347516
	NP_001258712; NP_001258713; NP_060569
	NP_001334445; NP_848912
	Wikidata
View/Edit Human	View/Edit Mouse

Fatty acyl-CoA reductase 2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FAR2 gene. This enzyme produces fatty alcohols from saturated long-chain fatty acids attached to coenzyme A. These fatty alcohols are then used to produce other molecules such as ether lipids (a component of cell membranes) and wax esters (a component of sebum). Unlike fatty acyl-CoA reductase 1, this enzyme does not act on unsaturated fatty acids.

Function

FAR2 (like FAR1) is an enzyme found on the membrane of the peroxisomes. As an alcohol-forming fatty acyl-CoA reductase, FAR2 catalyses the following chemical reaction:

a long-chain fatty acyl-CoA + 2 NADPH + 2 H⁺ → a long-chain alcohol + 2 NADP⁺ + coenzyme A

FAR2 has high affinity for C16 and C18 fatty acyl-CoA, and can also act on very long-chain and ultra-long-chain fatty acyl-CoA. In addition, it shows some low activity towards shorter chains. However, it is does not act on unsaturated C16 or C18 fatty acyl-CoA, which differentiates it from FAR1.

References

1 2 3 GRCh38: Ensembl release 89: ENSG00000064763 – Ensembl, May 2017
1 2 3 GRCm38: Ensembl release 89: ENSMUSG00000030303 – Ensembl, May 2017
↑ "Human PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
↑ "Mouse PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Fatty acyl-CoA reductase 2". uniprot.org. UniProt consortium. Retrieved 2026-10-16.
1 2 Dean JM, Lodhi IJ (February 2018). "Structural and functional roles of ether lipids". Protein & cell. 9 (2): 196–206. doi:10.1007/s13238-017-0423-5. PMC 5818364.
↑ EC 1.2.1.84

This article on a gene on human chromosome 12 is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

[refGRCh38Ensembl-1] 1 2 3 GRCh38: Ensembl release 89: ENSG00000064763 – Ensembl, May 2017

[refGRCm38Ensembl-2] 1 2 3 GRCm38: Ensembl release 89: ENSMUSG00000030303 – Ensembl, May 2017

[3] "Human PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.

[4] "Mouse PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.

[uniprot-5] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Fatty acyl-CoA reductase 2". uniprot.org. UniProt consortium. Retrieved 2026-10-16.

[Dean2018-6] 1 2 Dean JM, Lodhi IJ (February 2018). "Structural and functional roles of ether lipids". Protein & cell. 9 (2): 196–206. doi:10.1007/s13238-017-0423-5. PMC 5818364.

[7] EC 1.2.1.84