Cytochrome oxidases proton pump

Describe the cytochrome oxidase proton pump (Complex IV) and its electron-carrying groups. 

Electron Transfer Reactions Coupled with Proton Translocation Cytochrome Oxidase, Proton Pumps, and Biological Energy Transduction... 

Another experiment carried out by Hill s group was an attempt [206] to detect ejection of from the mitochondrial matrix, as associated with the cytochrome c oxidase proton pump . With a Au OTTLE modified by pre-adsorption of bis(4-pyridyl)disulfide, to reduce cytochrome c, pumping was expected to be observed as a transient change in the light absorption of phenol red— in an essentially unbuffered suspension of rat-hver mitochondria— as the electrode potential was jumped to a reducing level. However, the experiment succeeded only in detecting the alkalinization expected from chemical depletion of H as O2 was reduced. 

Cytochrome P450 2C19, also termed S-mephenytoin hydroxylase, is a mixed-function oxidase localized in the endoplasmic reticulum which is responsible for the biotransformation of S-mephenytoin, some barbiturates, almost all proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole, diazepam and others. 

Michel H. 1999. Cytochrome c oxidase Catalytic cycle and mechanisms of proton pumping— A discussion. Biochemistry 38 15129. 

P. Mitchell (Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1978) explained these facts by his chemiosmotic theory. This theory is based on the ordering of successive oxidation processes into reaction sequences called loops. Each loop consists of two basic processes, one of which is oriented in the direction away from the matrix surface of the internal membrane into the intracristal space and connected with the transfer of electrons together with protons. The second process is oriented in the opposite direction and is connected with the transfer of electrons alone. Figure 6.27 depicts the first Mitchell loop, whose first step involves reduction of NAD+ (the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenosine dinucleotide) by the carbonaceous substrate, SH2. In this process, two electrons and two protons are transferred from the matrix space. The protons are accumulated in the intracristal space, while electrons are transferred in the opposite direction by the reduction of the oxidized form of the Fe-S protein. This reduces a further component of the electron transport chain on the matrix side of the membrane and the process is repeated. The final process is the reduction of molecular oxygen with the reduced form of cytochrome oxidase. It would appear that this reaction sequence includes not only loops but also a proton pump, i.e. an enzymatic system that can employ the energy of the redox step in the electron transfer chain for translocation of protons from the matrix space into the intracristal space. 

Belevich I, Verkhovsky MI, Wikstrom M (2006) Proton-coupled electron transfer drives the proton pump of cytochrome c oxidase. Nature 440 829-832. 

To explain how H+ transfer occurred across the membrane Mitchell suggested the protons were translocated by redox loops with different reducing equivalents in their two arms. The first loop would be associated with flavoprotein/non-heme iron interaction and the second, more controversially, with CoQ. Redox loops required an ordered arrangement of the components of the electron transport system across the inner mitochondrial membrane, which was substantiated from immunochemical studies with submitochondrial particles. Cytochrome c, for example, was located at the intermembranal face of the inner membrane and cytochrome oxidase was transmembranal. The alternative to redox loops, proton pumping, is now known to be a property of cytochrome oxidase. 

In all protein-protein complexes studied to date in which cytochrome c has been a partner, it has been shown that the ET rates depend strongly on the reaction driving force. It follows that variations in the reorganization energy could control ET rates in these cases [12]. In redox enzymes with two or more active centers, ET between two centers could be turned on by lowering X at roughly constant — AG [1]. Indeed, a proposal has been advanced that this type of mechanism would be an efficient way to gate the electron flow in a redox-linked proton pump such as cytochrome oxidase [75]. 

Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) has been characterized as a proton pump (see, for instance, M. Saratse s 1999 Science magazine article ), although CcO... 

The oxidation/reduction of redox cofactors in biological systems is often coupled to proton binding/release either at the cofactor itself or at local amino acid residues, which provides the basic mechanochem-ical part of a proton pump such as that foimd in cytochrome c oxidase (95). Despite a thermodynamic cycle that provides that coupling of protonation of amino acids to the reduction process will result in a 60 mV/pH decrease unit in the reduction potential per proton boimd between the pAa values in the Fe(III) and Fe(II) states, the essential pumping of protons in the respiratory complexes has yet to be localized within their three-dimensional structures. 

Proton gradients can be built up in various ways. A very unusual type is represented by bacteriorhodopsin (1), a light-driven proton pump that various bacteria use to produce energy. As with rhodopsin in the eye, the light-sensitive component used here is covalently bound retinal (see p. 358). In photosynthesis (see p. 130), reduced plastoquinone (QH2) transports protons, as well as electrons, through the membrane (Q cycle, 2). The formation of the proton gradient by the respiratory chain is also coupled to redox processes (see p. 140). In complex III, a Q,cycle is responsible for proton translocation (not shown). In cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV, 3), trans-... 

Complex IV Cytochrome c to 02 In the final step of the respiratory chain, Complex IV, also called cytochrome oxidase, carries electrons from cytochrome c to molecular oxygen, reducing it to H20. Complex IV is a large enzyme (13 subunits Mr 204,000) of the inner mitochondrial membrane. Bacteria contain a form that is much simpler, with only three or four subunits, but still capable of catalyzing both electron transfer and proton pumping. Comparison of the mitochondrial and bacterial complexes suggests that three subunits are critical to the function (Fig. 19-13). 

For reasons discussed in Chapter 20, plants must carry out this reaction even when they do not need NADH for ATP production. To regenerate NAD+ from unneeded NADH, plant mitochondria transfer electrons from NADH directly to ubiquinone and from ubiquinone directly to 02, bypassing Complexes III and IV and their proton pumps. In this process the energy in NADH is dissipated as heat, which can sometimes be of value to the plant (Box 19-1). Unlike cytochrome oxidase (Complex IV), the alternative QH2 oxidase is not inhibited by cyanide. Cyanide-resistant NADH oxidation is therefore the hallmark of this unique plant electron-transfer pathway. 

Babcock, G.T. Wickstrom, M. (1992) Oxygen activation and the conservation of energy in cell respiration. Nature 356, 301-309. Advanced discussion of the reduction of water and pumping of protons by cytochrome oxidase. 

Correct answer = D. Thirteen of the approximately 100 polypeptides required for oxidative phosphorylation are coded for by mitochondrial DNA, including the electron transport components cytochrome c and coenzyme Q. Oxygen directly oxidizes cytochrome oxidase. Succinate dehydrogenase directly reduces FAD. Cyanide inhibits electron flow, proton pumping, and ATP synthesis. 

Tire most studied of all copper-containing oxidases is cytochrome c oxidase of mitochondria. This multisubunit membrane-embedded enzyme accepts four electrons from cytochrome c and uses them to reduce 02 to 2 H20. It is also a proton pump. Its structure and functions are considered in Chapter 18. However, it is appropriate to mention here that the essential catalytic centers consist of two molecules of heme a (a and a3) and three Cu+ ions. In the fully oxidized enzyme two metal centers, one Cu2+ (of the two-copper center CuA) and one Fe3+ (heme a), can be detected by EPR spectroscopy. The other Cu2+ (CuB) and heme a3 exist as an EPR-silent exchange-coupled pair just as do the two copper ions of hemocyanin and of other type 3 binuclear copper centers. 

The stoichiometry of proton pumping was measured by Lehninger and associates using a fast-responding 02 electrode and a glass pH electrode.189 190 They observed an export of eight H+/ O for oxidation of succinate rat liver mitochondria in the presence of a permeant cation that would prevent the buildup of Em, and four H+/ O (2 H+/ e ) for the cytochrome oxidase system. These are equivalent to two H+/ e at each of sites II and III as is indicated in Fig. 18-4. 

Chan, S. I., and P. M. Li, Cytochrome c oxidase Understanding nature s design of a proton pump. Biochem. 29 1,... 

Cytochrome oxidase also serves as a proton pump, so that the process of electron transfer is associated with the vectorial transfer of protons across the membrane, and thus contributes to the establishment of the proton gradient which is used to drive the synthesis of ATP. Cytochrome oxidase is located in the inner mitochondrial membrane of animal, plant and yeast cells (the eukaryotes) and in the cell membrane of prokaryotes. The arrangement is represented schematically in Figure 58. The complexity of cytochrome oxidase and the problems associated with its solubilization from the membrane have presented great obstacles to the elucidation of the structure and mechanism of the enzyme, but its importance has resulted in an enormous literature, which has been reviewed frequently.1296 1299... 

Electron transport through oxidases in the plasma membrane contributes to, or controls, part of the proton release from the cell. The details of oxidase function and the mechanism of control remain to be elucidated. The NADPH oxidase of neutrophils is a special case in which proton transport is coupled to the cytochrome >557 electron carrier. This type of proton transport has its precedents in the well-characterized proton pumping through electron carriers in mitochondrial and chloroplast membranes and prokaryotic plasma membranes. 

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