Electron-Transfer-Chain

Atovaquone, a hydroxynaphthoquinone, selectively inhibits the respiratory chain of protozoan mitochondria at the cytochrome bcl complex (complex III) by mimicking the natural substrate, ubiquinone. Inhibition of cytochrome bcl disrupts the mitochondrial electron transfer chain and leads to a breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Atovaquone is effective against all parasite stages in humans, including the liver stages. 

NDO can be classified as class III dioxygenase the electron transfer chain involves a Rieske-type ferredoxin. Electrons enter NDO through the Rieske-type cluster of the dioxygenase. Kauppi et al. (11) have suggested that the binding site of NDO for the ferredoxin involves the 6 strands 10 and 12 of the Rieske domain as well as residues from the catalytic domain that form a depression in the protein surface close to Cys 101, which is a ligand of the Rieske cluster. In Rieske proteins from be complexes, access to this side of the cluster is blocked by an acidic surface residue (Asp 152 in the ISF, Glu 120 in RFS). 

Moreover, an electron transfer chain could be reconstituted in vitro that is able to oxidize aldehydes to carboxylic acids with concomitant reduction of protons and net production of dihydrogen (213, 243). The first enzyme in this chain is an aldehyde oxidoreductase (AOR), a homodimer (100 kDa) containing one Mo cofactor (MOD) and two [2Fe—2S] centers per subunit (199). The enzyme catalytic cycle can be regenerated by transferring electrons to flavodoxin, an FMN-con-taining protein of 16 kDa (and afterwards to a multiheme cytochrome and then to hydrogenase) ... 

This study of such of an electron transfer chain is most timely, since the 3D structures of all the components involved are known (and related components can easily be obtained by homology molecular modeling). Proposals of structural models for the complexes formed between D. gigas AOR and flavodoxin, based on the available X-ray... 

Midpoint potential values are useful quantitites for defining the role of the various centers in the system. In some instances, these values have even been used to predict the location of the centers in the electron transfer chain, assuming that the potential increases along the chain from the electron donor to the electron acceptor. In several oxidoreductases, however, the measured potential of some centers was found to be clearly outside the range defined by the donor and the acceptor, which raised an intriguing question as to their function. This was observed, for instance, in the case of the [4Fe-4S] (Eni = -320 mV) center in E. coli fumarate reductase (249), the [3Fe-4S] + (Era = -30 mV) center in D. gigas hydrogenase (207), and the low-potential [4Fe-4S] + + (E, = 200 and -400 mV) centers in E. 

The Methylamine Dehydrogenase Electron Transfer Chain C. Dennison, G. W. Canters, S. de Vries, E. Vijgenboom, and R. J. van Spanning... 

The cleavage of C—S bonds in C—SO2R anion radicals plays an important role in SrnI tyP processes ". Kornblum and coworkers described a photostimulated electron transfer chain substitution at a saturated carbon where the leaving group is PhSOj ... 

Pereira MM, Carita JN, Teixeira M. 1999. Membrane-bound electron transfer chain of the ther-mohalophilic bacterium Rhodothermus marinus Characterization of the iron- sulfur centers from the dehydrogenases and investigation of the high-potential iron- sulfur protein function by in vitro reconstitution of the respiratory chain. Biochemistry 38 1276. 

Table 6.2 Apparent formal redox potentials of systems present in the electron-transfer chain (pH = 7). It should be noted that the potential values were obtained in the homogeneous phase. Due to stabilization in a membrane, the oxidation-reduction properties vary so that the data listed below are of orientation character...

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. 

Fds with conventional [Fe2-S2] clusters can undergo a one-electron transfer to a deeply valence-trapped FemFen species. For proteins of known structure (and presumably others) one iron atom is closer to the surface (by about 0.5 nm) and it has been established that the added electron resides on that atom. No instances are known where an [Fe2-S2] centre acts as a physiological two-electron donor or acceptor. In addition to the conventional [Fe2-S2] ferredoxins, the electron-transfer chains of mitochondria and photosynthetic bacteria contain Rieske proteins which have a cluster with the composition [(Cys.S)2FeS2Fe(N.His)2], in which the two imidazole groups are bound to the same iron atom (Figure 2.9). This atom is the site... 

Fig. 5.7. In green sulfur bacteria and in some archaebacteria, a reverse citric acid cycle is used for the assimilation of C02. It must be assumed that this was the original function of the citric acid cycle that only secondarily took over the role as a dissimulatory and oxidative process for the degradation of organic matter. A major enzyme here is 2-oxoglutarate ferredoxin for C02 fixation. Note that it, like several other enzymes in the cycle, uses Fe/S proteins. One is the initial so-called complex I which has eight different Fe/S centres of different kinds but no haem (see also other early electron-transfer chains, e.g. in hydrogenases).

Cyt c is one of most important and extensively studied electron-transfer proteins, partly because of its high solubility in water compared with other redox-active proteins. In vivo, cyt c transfers an electron from complex III to complex IV, membrane-bound components of the mitochondrial electron-transfer chain. The electrochemical interrogation of cyt c has, however, been hindered because the redox-active heme center is... 

In plants, the photosynthesis reaction takes place in specialized organelles termed chloroplasts. The chloroplasts are bounded in a two-membrane envelope with an additional third internal membrane called thylakoid membrane. This thylakoid membrane is a highly folded structure, which encloses a distinct compartment called thylakoid lumen. The chlorophyll found in chloroplasts is bound to the protein in the thylakoid membrane. The major photosensitive molecules in plants are the chlorophylls chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. They are coupled through electron transfer chains to other molecules that act as electron carriers. Structures of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and pheophytin a are shown in Figure 7.9. 

The Methylamine Dehydrogenase Electron Transfer Chain C. Dennison, G. W. Canters,... 

Chapter 6). Other iron-sulfur proteins, so named because they contain iron sulfur clusters of various sizes, include the rubredoxins and ferredoxins. Rubredoxins are found in anaerobic bacteria and contain iron ligated to four cysteine sulfurs. Ferredoxins are found in plant chloroplasts and mammalian tissue and contain spin-coupled [2Fe-2S] clusters. Cytochromes comprise several large classes of electron transfer metalloproteins widespread in nature. At least four cytochromes are involved in the mitrochondrial electron transfer chain, which reduces oxygen to water according to equation 1.29. Further discussion of these proteins can be found in Chapters 6 and 7 of reference 13. 

Cytochromes, as components of electron transfer chains, must interact with the other components, accepting electrons from reduced donor molecules and transferring them to... 

The formation of the monocationic intermediate (ArH)2Fe+ attendant upon the charge-transfer excitation of either the ferrocene or methylan-thracene EDA complex (7a and 7b) is responsible for the photo-induced de-ligation of bis(arene)iron(II), as described in (6). Thus, transient electrochemical studies (Karpinski and Kochi, 1992a,b) show that the catalytic de-ligation of (ArH)2Fe+ proceeds rapidly via a (two-step) electron-transfer chain or ETC process (8). 

By 1949 low temperature spectroscopy had been introduced. With this technique Keilin and Hartree detected a further component in the electron transfer chain which had a sharp band at 552 nm. They later showed it to be identical with cytochrome cj, which had first been observed by Yakushiji and Okunuki (1940) during succinate oxidation by cyanide-inhibited beef heart muscle. As the oxidation of cytochrome C was accelerated by cytochrome c, Okunuki and Yakushiji (1941) had placed C] in the chain in the order... 

Before proceeding it is necessary to clarify the terminology of two fairly similar processes, at least as far as their nomenclature is concerned redox catalysis and electron-transfer chain catalysis. 

The electron-transfer chain (ETC) catalytic process (or, electrocatalysis) is the catalysis of a reaction triggered by electrons (through a minimal quantity of an oxidizing or reducing agent) without the occurrence of an overall change in the oxidation state of the reagent. 

Cytochrome c oxidase is a copper protein, which, in the respiratory electron-transfer chain of mitochondria and many bacteria, catalyses the reduction of molecular oxygen to water, according to the reaction ... 

Further classifications among cytochromes belonging to the same class are made using symbols related to the order of their participation in electron-transfer chains or to the wavelength of their maximum absorbance. 

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