Electron transport chain transfer

Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO), the terminal member of the mitochondrial electron-transport chain, transfers electrons from Cc to molecular oxygen and pumps protons across the mitochondrial membrane. The determination of the X-ray crystal structures of CcO from both bovine mitochondria and P. denitrificans has made it possible to address questions about the mechanism of electron transfer and proton pumping at the molecular level. The enzyme from bovine mitochondria has 13 subunits, while Paracoccus enzyme has 4 subunits. CcO contains four redox-active metal centers, Cua, located in... 

Otto Shape s exercise program increases his rate of ATP utilization and his rate of fuel oxidation in the TCA cycle. The TCA cycle generates NADH and FAD(2H), and the electron transport chain transfers electrons from NADH and FAD(2H) to O2, thereby creating the electrochemical potential that drives ATP synthesis from ADR As ATP is used in the cell, the rate of the electron transport chain increases. The TCA cycle and other fuel oxidative pathways respond by increasing their rates of NADH and FAD(2H) production. 

The ready reversibility of this reaction is essential to the role that qumones play in cellular respiration the process by which an organism uses molecular oxygen to convert Its food to carbon dioxide water and energy Electrons are not transferred directly from the substrate molecule to oxygen but instead are transferred by way of an electron trans port chain involving a succession of oxidation-reduction reactions A key component of this electron transport chain is the substance known as ubiquinone or coenzyme Q... 

Engelhardt s experiments in 1930 led to the notion that ATP is synthesized as the result of electron transport, and, by 1940, Severo Ochoa had carried out a measurement of the P/O ratio, the number of molecules of ATP generated per atom of oxygen consumed in the electron transport chain. Because two electrons are transferred down the chain per oxygen atom reduced, the P/O ratio also reflects the ratio of ATPs synthesized per pair of electrons consumed. After many tedious and careful measurements, scientists decided that the P/O ratio was 3 for NADH oxidation and 2 for succinate (that is, [FADHg]) oxidation. Electron flow and ATP synthesis are very tightly coupled in the sense that, in normal mitochondria, neither occurs without the other. 

Studies (see, e.g., (101)) indicate that photosynthesis originated after the development of respiratory electron transfer pathways (99, 143). The photosynthetic reaction center, in this scenario, would have been created in order to enhance the efficiency of the already existing electron transport chains, that is, by adding a light-driven cycle around the cytochrome be complex. The Rieske protein as the key subunit in cytochrome be complexes would in this picture have contributed the first iron-sulfur center involved in photosynthetic mechanisms (since on the basis of the present data, it seems likely to us that the first photosynthetic RC resembled RCII, i.e., was devoid of iron—sulfur clusters). 

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. 

As fuel molecules are oxidized, the electrons they have lost are used to make NADH and FADH2. The function of the electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation is to take electrons from these molecules and transfer them to oxygen, making ATP in the process. 

As electrons move down the electron transport chain, the carriers become reduced (Fig. 14-1). The next carrier oxidizes the previous carrier, taking its electrons and transferring them on to the next carrier. Finally the electrons end up reducing oxygen to water. The cytochromes are named with letters in no particular order, making them tough to memorize, but you probably should learn them, at least right before the exam—after that you can look them up if you ever need to. 

The P/O ratio is the number of ATPs made for each O atom consumed by mitochondrial respiration. The P stands for high-energy phosphate equivalents, and the O actually stands for the number of I 02 s that are consumed by the electron transport chain. The full reduction of 02 to 2 H20 takes 4 electrons. Therefore, 2 electrons reduce of an 02. The oxidation of NADH to NAD and the oxidation of FADH2 to FAD are both 2-electron oxidations. O can be read as the transfer of 2 electrons. It s not quite as obscure as it sounds.2... 

Rotenone inhibits the transfer of electrons from NADH into the electron transport chain. The oxidation of substrates that generate NADH is, therefore, blocked. However, substrates that are oxidized to generate FADH2 (such as succinate or a-glycerol phosphate) can still be oxidized and still generate ATP. Because NADH oxidation is blocked, the NADH pool becomes more reduced in the presence of rotenone since there s nowhere to transfer the electrons. 

The microbes use two general strategies to synthesize ATP respiration and fermentation. A respiring microbe captures the energy released when electrons are transferred from a reduced species in the environment to an oxidized species (Fig. 18.1). The reduced species, the electron donor, sorbs to a complex of redox enzymes, or a series of such complexes, located in the cell membrane. The complex strips from the donor one or more electrons, which cascade through a series of enzymes and coenzymes that make up the electron transport chain to a terminal enzyme complex, also within the cell membrane. 

Once the special pair has absorbed a photon of solar energy, the excited electron is rapidly removed from the vicinity of the reaction centre to prevent any back reactions. The path it takes is as follows within 3 ps (3 X 10 12 s) it has passed to the bacteriopheophytin (a chlorophyll molecule that has two protons instead of Mg2+ at its centre), without apparently becoming closely associated with the nearby accessory bacteriochlorophyll molecule. Some 200 ps later it is transferred to the quinone. Within the next 100 ps the special pair has been reduced (by electrons coming from an electron transport chain that terminates with the cytochrome situated just above it), eliminating the positive charge, while the excited electron migrates to a second quinone molecule. 

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