Electron transport flavoprotein

Deficiency of electron transport flavoprotein or of ETF ubiquinone reductase Biotinidase... 

The acyl-CoA dehydrogenases are unique among flavoproteins for a number of reasons. The binding of substrate and enzyme is so tight as to be virtually non-dissociable. The flavin moiety is very stable and not oxidized in the presence of molecular oxygen, ferricyanide or other elecron acceptors. For this reason, the oxidation of the reduced form of the enzyme must be catalysed by a specific flavoprotein - the electron transport flavoprotein (ETF) discovered in 1956 by the American biochemists Crane and Beinert. This seems to be a unique case where an oxidation-reduction enzyme requires another specific protein for its reoxidation. 

As we have seen, the metabolic energy from oxidation of food materials—sugars, fats, and amino acids—is funneled into formation of reduced coenzymes (NADH) and reduced flavoproteins ([FADHg]). The electron transport chain reoxidizes the coenzymes, and channels the free energy obtained from these reactions into the synthesis of ATP. This reoxidation process involves the removal of both protons and electrons from the coenzymes. Electrons move from NADH and [FADHg] to molecular oxygen, Og, which is the terminal acceptor of electrons in the chain. The reoxidation of NADH,... 

NADH and reduced substrate dehydrogenase-flavoproteins (FPH2) must be continually reoxidized for mitochondrial oxidations to proceed. This is achieved by the electron transport chain (respiratory chain) which is a series of redox carriers of graded redox potential in the inner mitochondrial membrane (Appendix 1) that catalyzes the net reactions ... 

In addition to these more-or-less well characterized proteins, iron is known to be bound to certain flavoproteins such as succinic dehydrogenase (20), aldehyde oxidase (27), xanthine oxidase (22) and dihydrooro-tate dehydrogenase (23). Iron is present and functional in non-heme segments of the electron transport chain but again no real structural information is at hand (24). 

There are two types of electron transport those involving flavoproteins and iron-sulfur proteins, and those requiring only flavoproteins. The X-ray crystal structure of the soluble cytochrome P450 from Pseudomonas putida grown on camphor (P-450-CAM) has been determined (Poulos et ah, 1985), as have several others. The haem group is deeply embedded in the hydrophobic interior of the protein, and the identity of the proximal haem iron ligand, based on earlier spectroscopic studies (Mason et ah, 1965) is confirmed as a specific cysteine residue. 

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. 

Figure 14.1. Proposed electron-transport pathway in the acetogenic bacteria M. thermoacetica and M. thermoautotrophica. Cyt., cytochrome MTi/FD//, methylene tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase Fd, ferredoxin Fp, flavoprotein H2ase, hydrogenase.

Most compounds oxidized by the electron transport chain donate hydrogen to NAD+, and then NADH is reoxidized in a reaction coupled to reduction of a flavoprotein. During this transformation, sufficient energy is released to enable synthesis of ATP from ADP. The reduced flavoprotein is reoxidized via reduction of coenzyme Q subsequent redox reactions then involve cytochromes and electron transfer processes rather than hydrogen transfer. In two of these cytochrome redox reactions, there is sufficient energy release to allow ATP synthesis. In... 

At the cellular level, rotenone inhibits cellular respiration by blocking electron transport between flavoprotein and ubiquinone. It also inhibits spindle microtubule assembly. ... 

Putidaredoxin. Cushman et al. (36) isolated a low molecular iron-sulfur protein from camphor-grown Pseudomonas putida. This protein, putidaredoxin, is similar to the plant type ferredoxins with two irons attached to two acid-labile sulfur atoms (37). It has a molecular weight of 12,000 and shows absorption maxima at 327, 425 and 455 nm. Putidaredoxin functions as an electron transfer component of a methylene hydroxylase system involved in camphor hydroxylation by P. putida. This enzyme system consists of putidaredoxin, flavoprotein and cytochrome P.cQ (38). The electron transport from flavoprotein to cytochrome P.cq is Smilar to that of the mammalian mixed-function oxidase, but requires NADH as a primary electron donor as shown in Fig. 4. In this bacterial mixed-function oxidase system, reduced putidaredoxin donates an electron to substrate-bound cytochrome P. g, and the reduced cytochrome P. g binds to molecular oxygen. One oxygen atom is then used for substrate oxidation, and the other one is reduced to water (39, 40). 

It has been suggested that an FeS flavoprotein with presumed electron transporting function may be involved in the reduction of the flavodiiron protein in Methanosarcina acetivorans (Saraiva et al. 2004). Since putative FeS flavoproteins with predicted hydrogenosomal target peptides have also... 

The biological function of Factor-420 is to catalyze the electron transport between hydrogen and pyridine nucleotide in Methanobacteria (anaerob). These Arckaebacteria are obligate anaerobes. In this context some proposals have been put forward with respect to the evolution of biological reactions catalyzed by flavoproteins... 

A second group of electron carriers in mitochondrial membranes are the iron-sulfur [Fe-S] clusters which are also bound to proteins. Iron-sulfur proteins release Fe3+ or Fe2+ plus H2S when acidified. The "inorganic clusters" bound into the proteins have characteristic compositions such as Fe2S2 and Fe4S4. The sulfur atoms of the clusters can be regarded as sulfide ions bound to the iron ions. The iron atoms are also attached to other sulfur atoms from cysteine side chains from the proteins. The Fe-S proteins are often tightly associated with other components of the electron transport chain. For example, the flavoproteins Flavin 1, Flavin 2, and Flavin 3 shown in Fig. 10-5 all contain Fe-S clusters as does the Q-cytochrome b complex. All of these Fe-S clusters seem to be one-electron carriers. 

Pyruvate oxidase. The soluble flavoprotein pyruvate oxidase, which was discussed briefly in Chapter 14 (Fig. 14-2, Eq. 14-22), acts together with a membrane-bound electron transport system to convert pyruvate to acetyl phosphate and C02.319 Thiamin diphosphate is needed by this enzyme but lipoic acid is not. The flavin probably dehydrogenates the thiamin-bound intermediate to 2-acetylthiamin as shown in Eq. 15-34. The electron acceptor is the bound FAD and the reaction may occur in two steps as shown with a thiamin diphosphate radical intermediate.3193 Reaction with inorganic phosphate generates the energy storage metabolite acetyl phosphate. 

During the 1940s, when it had become clear that formation of ATP in mitochondria was coupled to electron transport, the first attempts to pick the system apart and understand the molecular mechanism began. This effort led to the identification and at least partial characterization of several flavoproteins, iron-sulfur centers, ubiquinones, and cytochromes, most of which have been described in Chapters 15 and 16. It also led to the picture of mitochondrial electron transport shown in Fig. 10-5 and which has been drawn in a modem form in Fig. 18-5. 

The development by Chance of a dual wavelength spectrophotometer permitted easy observation of the state of oxidation or reduction of a given carrier within mitochondria.60 This technique, together with the study of specific inhibitors (some of which are indicated in Fig. 18-5 and Table 18-4), allowed some electron transport sequences to be assigned. For example, blockage with rotenone and amytal prevented reduction of the cytochrome system by NADH but allowed reduction by succinate and by other substrates having their own flavoprotein components in the chain. Artificial electron acceptors, some of which are shown in Table 18-5,... 

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