The consensus has been that intracellular coenzyme A (CoA) is obtained exclusively by de novo biosynthesis via a universal, conserved five-step pathway in the cell cytosol. However, old and new evidence suggest that cells (and some microorganisms) have several strategies to obtain CoA, with 4'-phosphopantetheine (P-PantSH; the fourth intermediate in the canonical CoA biosynthetic pathway) serving as a 'nexus' metabolite.