Why is coenzyme A important to many metabolic reactions?
A.
Coenzyme A has a reactive thiol (—SH) group that is critical to the role of CoA as an acyl carrier in many metabolic reactions.
B.
Acyl groups are covalently linked to the thiol group, forming thioesters.
C.
Because of their relatively high standard free energies of hydrolysis, thioesters have a high acyl group transfer potential—that is, donation of their acyl groups to a variety of acceptor molecules is a favorable reaction.
D.
The acyl group attached to coenzyme A may thus be thought of as “activated” for group transfer.