Electron transport system components

Much progress has been made in understanding the different mechanisms that can cause mitochondrial dysfunction, such as (i) uncoupling of electron transport from ATP synthesis by undermining integrity of inner membrane (ii) direct inhibition of electron transport system components (iii) opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore leading to irreversible collapse of the transmembrane potential and release of pro-apoptotic factors (iv) inhibition of the... 

The spatial separation between the components of the electron transport chain and the site of ATP synthesis was incompatible with simple interpretations of the chemical coupling hypothesis. In 1964, Paul Boyer suggested that conformational changes in components in the electron transport system consequent to electron transfer might be coupled to ATP formation, the conformational coupling hypothesis. No evidence for direct association has been forthcoming but conformational changes in the subunits of the FI particle are now included in the current mechanism for oxidative phosphorylation. 

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. 

The mechanism in hepatic cellular metabolism involves an electron transport system that functions for many drugs and chemical substances. These reactions include O-demethylation, N-demethyla-tion, hydroxylation, nitro reduction and other classical biotransformations. The electron transport system contains the heme protein, cytochrome P-450 that is reduced by NADPH via a flavoprotein, cytochrome P-450 reductase. For oxidative metabolic reactions, cytochrome P-450, in its reduced state (Fe 2), incorporates one atom of oxygen into the drug substrate and another into water. Many metabolic reductive reactions also utilize this system. In addition, there is a lipid component, phosphatidylcholine, which is associated with the electron transport and is an obligatory requirement for... 

Detection of the components of an electron transport system, involving cytochromes, is based on (a) identification of the various cytochromes by absorption and difference spectroscopy at room and liquid-nitrogen temperatures, and (b) the use of specific inhibitors, such as antimycin A and cyanide, for the various... 

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. 

Microbes capable of carrying out fermentations are classified as either facultative or obligate anaerobes. Facultative anaerobes, such as the enterobacteria, utilize 02 if and when it is present, but if it is absent, they carry out fermentative metabolism. In contrast, obligate anaerobes are unable to synthesize the components of electron transport systems consequently, they cannot grow as aerobes. Moreover, many of the obligate anaerobes cannot even tolerate oxygen and perish in air these organisms are referred to as strict anaerobes. 

Measurements can be done using the technique of redox potentiometry. In experiments of this type, mitochondria are incubated anaerobically in the presence of a reference electrode [for example, a hydrogen electrode (Chap. 10)] and a platinum electrode and with secondary redox mediators. These mediators form redox pairs with Ea values intermediate between the reference electrode and the electron-transport-chain component of interest they permit rapid equilibration of electrons between the electrode and the electron-transport-chain component. The experimental system is allowed to reach equilibrium at a particular E value. This value can then be changed by addition of a reducing agent (such as reduced ascorbate or NADH), and the relationship between E and the levels of oxidized and reduced electron-transport-chain components is measured. The 0 values can then be calculated using the Nernst equation (Chap. 10) ... 

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... 

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. 

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 ... 

Most of the aerobic cell s free energy is captured by the mitochondrial electron transport system (Chapter 10). During this process, electrons are transferred from a redox pair with a more negative reduction potential (NADH/NAD+) to those with more positive reduction potentials. The last component in the system is the H20/ /2 02 pair ... 

Cytochrome P450 electron transport systems are an important feature of biotransformation in animal bodies. Biotransformation is a series of enzyme-catalyzed processes in which potentially toxic and usually hydrophobic substances are converted into less toxic water-soluble derivatives that can then be more easily excreted. Substrates for biotransformation include endogenous substances, such as cholesterol, and foreign molecules, called xenobiotics, such as drugs and nonnutritive components of food (e.g., glycosides and numerous fatty acid and amino acid derivatives). 

Acyl-CoA molecules are desaturated in ER membrane in the presence of NADH and 02. All components of the desaturase system are integral membrane proteins that are apparently randomly distributed on the cytoplasmic surface of the ER. The association of cytochrome b5 reductase (a flavoprotein), cytochrome b5, and oxygen-dependent desaturases constitutes an electron transport system. This system efficiently introduces double bonds into long-chain fatty acids (Figure 12.15). Both the flavoprotein and cytochrome b5 (found in a ratio of approximately 1 30) have hydrophobic peptides that anchor the proteins into the microsomal membrane. Animals typically have A9, A6, and A5 desaturases that use electrons supplied by NADH via the electron transport system to activate the oxygen needed to create the double bond. Plants contain additional desaturases for the A12 and A15 positions. 

Flo. 33. Proposed electron transport system for Halohacterium salinarium. Conventions for component molecules as in previous figures, where o indicates cytochrome o. Dashed line to cytochrome Oi represents a minor pathway. From reference 392. 

Many type b cytochromes associated with the classic cytochrome oxidase (a and 03) show their a peaks at 561-563 nm, and they are usually designated as cytochrome b. The name cytochrome 61 was originally used for the pigments with a peak at 557-560 nm, but it is now generally applied to the cytochrome in the nitrate reductase system. Cytochrome 62 (a, 557 nm) is the entity of yeast lactate dehydrogenase which contains FMN and protoheme. Cytochromes 63 (a, 559 nm) and 65 (a, 556 nm) participate in the microsomal electron transport system in plants and animals, respectively. Both the primary and ternary structures of cytochrome 65 are known. Cytochromes bg (a, 563 nm) and 6-559 are the components of the photosynthetic electron transport system in plant. 

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