Fumarate electron acceptor

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 conditions under which these function and their regulation depend on the organism. For example, in Escherichia coli, oxygen represses the synthesis of the other reductases, and under anaerobic conditions the reductases for fumarate, DMSO, and TMAO are repressed by nitrate. This does not apply to Wolinella succinogenes in which sulfur represses the synthesis of the more positive electron acceptors nitrate and fumarate (Lorenzen et al. 1993). The DMSO reductase from Escherichia coli (Weiner et al. 1988) has a broad substrate versatility, and is able to reduce a range of sulfoxides and A-oxides. Anaerobic sulfate reduction is not discussed here in detail. 

Bacteria have been isolated using reduced anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (HjAQDS) as electron donor and nitrate as electron acceptor (Coates et al. 2002). The organisms belonged to the a-, p-, y-, and 5-subdivision of the Proteobacteria, and were able to couple the oxidation of H AQDS to the reduction of nitrate with acetate as the carbon source. In addition, a number of C2 and C3 substrates could be used including propionate, butyrate, fumarate, lactate, citrate, and pyruvate. 

The reductase in Geobacter sulfurreducens is located in the outer membrane and a soluble Fe(III) reductase has been characterized from cells grown anaerobically with acetate as electron donor and Fe(III) citrate or fumarate as electron acceptor (Kaufmann and Lovley 2001). The enzyme contained Fe, acid-labile S, and FAD. An extracellular c-type cytochrome is distributed in the membranes, the periplasm, and the medium, and functions as a reductase for electron transfer to insoluble iron hydroxides, sulfur, or manganese dioxide (Seeliger et al. 1998). 

The covalent 8a-N(3)-histidyl FAD of mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase functions as a two-electron acceptor in the oxidation of succinate to fumarate and as a one-electron donor in the reduction of the iron-sulfur centers of the enzyme. Recent ESR spectroscopic data have shown the covalent flavin semiquinone... 

Succinate is oxidized to fumarate by succinate dehydrogenase, pro ducing the reduced coenzyme FADH2 (see Figure 9.6). [Note FAD, rather than NAD, is the electron acceptor because the reducing power of succinate is not sufficient to reduce NAD. ] Succinate dehydrogenase is inhibited by oxaloacetate. 

E. coli is a facultative anaerobe, and so while it can grow anaerobically in the gut, it can also use dioxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. The three principal respiratory chains of E. coli are linked to fumarate, nitrate and dioxygen. 

Fumarate is able to serve as an electron acceptor in anaerobic respiration, as it may be reduced reversibly to succinate in a two-electron process. The succinate-fumarate couple may therefore be utilized as an oxidant or reductant in the respiratory chain, and so differs from the other examples given in this section. These two reactions are catalyzed by succinate dehydrogenase and fumarate reductase, which have many similarities in subunit structure. These are shown in Table 29. Although they are different enzymes, the fumarate reductase can substitute for succinate dehydrogenase under certain conditions. The synthesis of succinate dehydrogenase is induced... 

Organisms with anaerobic mitochondria can be divided into two different types those which perform anaerobic respiration and use an alternative electron acceptor present in the environment, such as nitrate or nitrite, and those which perform fermentation reactions using an endogenously produced, organic electron acceptor, such as fumarate (Martin et al. 2001 Tielens et al. 2002). An example of the first type is the nitrate respiration that occurs in several ciliates (Finlay et al. 1983), and fungi (Kobayashi et al. 1996 Takaya et al. 2003), which use nitrate and/or nitrite as the terminal electron acceptor of their mitochondrial electron-transport chain, producing nitrous oxide as... 

Most anaerobically functioning mitochondria use endogenously produced fumarate as a terminal electron-acceptor (see before) and thus contain a FRD as the final respiratory chain complex (Behm 1991). The reduction of fumarate is the reversal of succinate oxidation, a Krebs cycle reaction catalysed by succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), also known as complex II of the electron-transport chain (Fig. 5.3). The interconversion of succinate and fumarate is readily reversible by FRD and SDH complexes in vitro. However, under standard conditions in the cell, oxidation and reduction reactions preferentially occur when electrons are transferred to an acceptor with a higher standard redox potential therefore, electrons derived from the oxidation of succinate to fumarate (E° = + 30 mV) are transferred by SDH to ubiquinone,... 

The use of fumarate as an endogenous electron acceptor requires a well-controlled balance between the various catabolic and anabolic reactions in the cell. Depending on the metabolic state of the cell, the NAD FI pool might... 

The vast majority of mitochondria use oxygen as a terminal acceptor of electrons. Along with aerobically respiring mitochondria, versatile mitochondria exist in which both oxygen and other oxidized compounds, e.g. fumarate and nitrate, serve as electron acceptors. Such sophisticated mitochondria were reported in several ciliates, fungi, and even lower animals (Tielens et al. 2002). The yield of ATP is, however, much lower in the cases of anaerobic respiration, as compared with 32-36 mol per mole of glucose produced by aerobic respiration (Saraste 1999). 

Further examples for electron acceptor monomers are acrylonitrile [37], diethyl fumarate [39], fumaronitrile [29,30, 38], maleonitrile [38], N-carbethoxymaleimide [29], N,N-diethylaminoethyl methacrylate [39], nitroethylene [10] and iV-ethyl-maleimide [40], As electron donor monomem also are used vinyl alkyl ethers [38, 40], alkyl methacrylate [40], JV-vinyl pyrrolidone [40] and cyclohexene oxide [10]. 

SQR (respiratory complex II) is involved in aerobic metabolism as part of the citric acid cycle and of the aerobic respiratory chain (Saraste, 1999). QFR participates in anaerobic respiration with fumarate as the terminal electron acceptor (Kroger, 1978 Kroger etal., 2002) and is part of the electron transport chain catalyzing the oxidation ofvarious donor substrates (e.g., H2 or formate) by fumarate. These reactions are coupled via an electrochemical proton potential (Ap) to ADP phosphorylation with inorganic phosphate by ATP synthase (Mitchell, 1979). 

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