Electron-transport system complexes

A second example of a membrane-bound arsenate reductase was isolated from Sulfurospirillum barnesii and was determined to be a aiPiyi-heterotrimic enzyme complex (Newman et al. 1998). The enzyme has a composite molecular mass of 100kDa, and a-, P-, and y-subunits have masses of 65, 31, and 22, respectively. This enzyme couples the reduction of As(V) to As(III) by oxidation of methyl viologen, with an apparent Kra of 0.2 mM. Preliminary compositional analysis suggests that iron-sulfur and molybdenum prosthetic groups are present. Associated with the membrane of S. barnesii is a h-type cytochrome, and the arsenate reductase is proposed to be linked to the electron-transport system of the plasma membrane. 

Mechanism of Action A systemic anti-infective that inhibits the mitochondrial electron-transport system at the cytochrome bcl complex (Complex 111), which interrupts nucleic acid and adenosine triphosphate synthesis. Therapeutic Effect Antiprotozoal and antipneumocystic activity. 

Biological Implications of Structural and Electrical Properties of Lipids. It is rather obvious that the structure of lipids is very important in connection with the function of living cells since most physiological processes occur in lipid environment. There is, for example, evidence that lipid-protein complexes are necessary for the proper functioning of mitochondria (56). Although lipids are most important in providing a suitable material for functional complexes (ionic channels, electron transport systems, receptor units, etc.), their own physical properties are certainly... 

Now that it is established that cestodes possess all the components of a electron transport system, is the latter functional Weinbach von Brand (952) failed to demonstrate either respiratory control or oxidative phosphorylation in T. taeniaeformis, although they regarded this as a technical rather than a physiological problem. However, there is good evidence that isolated mitochondria from M. expansa (124-127) and H. diminuta (663, 978) are capable of oxidative phosphorylation and respiratory control. The demonstration that a preparation of H. diminuta mitochondria will oxidise a range of substrates, exhibiting respiratory control, is shown in Table 5.14. Similarly, mitochondria from Diphyllo-bothrium latum can oxidise NADH (728) and succinate (729). It is likely that the classical mammalian-type part of the cytochrome chain in cestodes is capable of oxidative phosphorylation, but there is no evidence for ATP synthesis occurring on the alternative branch from the quinone or vitamin K/cytochrome b complex to cytochrome o. 

The endoplasmic reticulum electron-transport system (NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase) can also generate [18]. This system, which is often responsible for the metabolism of foreign compounds, is selectively distributed in a wide variety of cell types. Its presence in hepatocytes is particularly important, since drugs are often metabolised at this site. In this system, a single electron is transferred from reduced flavin to a cytochrome P-450-substrate complex. A second electron is then transferred through this complex to O2. Production of O - may occur through auto-oxidation of the partially reduced flavin cofactor or because of uncoupling of electrons from the enzyme-substrate complex to 02 [19]. 

Preparations of NADH dehydrogenase from mammalian mitochondria may be divided into three types (1) NADH-ubiquinone reductase or complex I of the electron transport system, (2) the high molecular weight NADH dehydrogenases, and (3) the low molecular weight NADH dehy-... 

NADH-ubiquinone reductase was isolated by Hatefi et al. in 1961 (27-B9). A procedure was developed for the resolution of the mitochondrial electron transport system into four enzyme complexes. Recently, a fifth fraction, which is capable of energy conservation and ATP-Pi exchange, was also isolated (30, 31). The overall scheme for the isolation of the five component enzyme complexes of the mitochondrial electron transport-oxidative phosphorylation system is given in Fig. 1. It is seen... 

It has been shown recently that the mitochondrial electron transport system contains at least three different fe-type cytochromes 178). Two of these cytochromes are found in complex III, and under appropriate conditions are reducible with substrates. The third 6-type cytochrome was discovered by Davis et al. 178), and shown to fractionate exclusively into complex II. At 77°K, the cytochrome 6 of complex II exhibits a double a band at 557.5 and 550 nm, a prominent band at 531 nm, and a Soret band at 422 nm (Fig. 29). Cytochrome 6557.5 appears to have a low reduction potential. It is not detectably reduced by succinate in either complex II or respiratory particles, but its dithionite reduced form is rapidly oxidized by either fumarate or ubiquinone. The role of this cytochrome in mammalian mitochondria is not known. Davis et al. 178) have suggested that it might be an electron entry point for an unknown ancillary tributary of the respiratory chain. Further, Bruni and Racker 179) have shown that a preparation of cytochrome 6 is required for reconstitution of succinate-ubiquinone reductase activity (see below). 

Studies with cell-free hydroxylases suggest that the hydroxylation mechanisms are complex. It is assumed that an electron transport system involving an NADPH-dependent flavoprotein, an iron-sulfur protein, and cytochrome P-450 is involved. In the case of the steroid 15/S-hydroxylase system of Bacillus megaierium, these three components have been demonstrated15. The 1 la-hydroxylase of Rhizopus nigricans is also an enzyme of the P-450 monooxygenase type which works with an NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase. In this case the enzyme complex is associated with the endoplasmic reticulum of the mycelial cells34. 

Members of the Sulfolobaceae (Sulfolobus and Acidianus) are facultative heterotrophs that can oxidize hydrogen sulfide to elemental sulfur and the latter to sulfuric acid. Nothing is known about the enzymology of these processes and to what extent membrane-boimd enzymes are involved. What information there is relates to the electron transport system of Sulfolobus which is relatively simple consisting as it does of dehydrogenases for succinate and NADH, a quinone pool, a complex of b-cytochromes, and several oxidases. 

Studies with beef-heart submitochondrial particles initiated in Green s laboratory in the mid-1950s resulted in the demonstration of ubiquinone and of non-heme iron proteins as components of the electron-transport system, and the separation, characterisation and reconstitution of the four oxidoreductase complexes of the respiratory chain. In 1960 Racker and his associates succeeded in isolating an ATPase from submitochondrial particles and demonstrated that this ATPase, called F, could serve as a coupling factor capable of restoring oxidative phosphorylation to F,-depleted particles. These preparations subsequently played an important role in elucidating the role of the membrane in energy transduction between electron transport and ATP synthesis. 

The mammalian acyl desaturases are components in mini-electron transport systems on the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum, for example the A -fatty acyl-CoA desaturase complex ... 

These findings are consistent with impaired fatty-acid oxidation reduced mitochondrial entry of long-chain acylcarnitine esters due to inhibition of the transport protein (carnitine palmityl transferase 1) and failure of the respiratory chain at complex II. Another previously reported abnormality of the respiratory chain in propofol-infusion syndrome is a reduction in cytochrome C oxidase activity, with reduced complex IV activity and a reduced cytochrome oxidase ratio of 0.004. Propofol can also impair the mitochondrial electron transport system in isolated heart preparations. 

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