Membrane inner

If the dmg itself cannot provide the osmotic driving force, then a push-puU design of the osmotic system is available with other salts as the osmotic force. This system is schematized in Eigure 5. The outer surface is a rigid semi-permeable membrane that surrounds the osmotic layer of salt (propeUant). Inside the osmotic layer is a compressible membrane that surrounds the dmg solution. As the salt layer sweUs with water, the inner membrane compresses and pushes out the dmg solution. 

Mitochondria Mitochondria are organelles surrounded by two membranes that differ markedly in their protein and lipid composition. The inner membrane and its interior volume, the matrix, contain many important enzymes of energy metabolism. Mitochondria are about the size of bacteria, 1 fim. Cells contain hundreds of mitochondria, which collectively occupy about one-fifth of the cell volume. Mitochondria are the power plants of eukaryotic cells where carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids are oxidized to CO9 and H9O. The energy released is trapped as high-energy phosphate bonds in ATR... 

Mitochondria are surrounded by a simple outer membrane and a more complex inner membrane (Figure 21.1). The space between the inner and outer membranes is referred to as the intermembrane space. Several enzymes that utilize ATP (such as creatine kinase and adenylate kinase) are found in the intermembrane space. The smooth outer membrane is about 30 to 40% lipid and 60 to 70% protein, and has a relatively high concentration of phos-phatidylinositol. The outer membrane contains significant amounts of porin —a transmembrane protein, rich in /3-sheets, that forms large channels across the membrane, permitting free diffusion of molecules with molecular weights of about 10,000 or less. Apparently, the outer membrane functions mainly to... 

The space inside the inner mitochondrial membrane is called the matrix, and it contains most of the enzymes of the TCA cycle and fatty acid oxidation. (An important exception, succinate dehydrogenase of the TCA cycle, is located in the inner membrane itself.) In addition, mitochondria contain circular DNA molecules, along with ribosomes and the enzymes required to synthesize proteins coded within the mitochondrial genome. Although some of the mitochondrial proteins are made this way, most are encoded by nuclear DNA and synthesized by cytosolic ribosomes. 

All these intermediates except for cytochrome c are membrane-associated (either in the mitochondrial inner membrane of eukaryotes or in the plasma membrane of prokaryotes). All three types of proteins involved in this chain— flavoproteins, cytochromes, and iron-sulfur proteins—possess electron-transferring prosthetic groups. 

The oxidation of one NADH and the reduction of one UQ by NADH-UQ reductase results in the net transport of protons from the matrix side to the cytosolic side of the inner membrane. The cytosolic side, where H accumulates, is referred to as the P (for positive) face similarly, the matrix side is the N (for negative) face. Some of the energy liberated by the flow of electrons... 

This is a crucial point because (as we will see) proton transport is coupled with ATP synthesis. Oxidation of one FADHg in the electron transport chain results in synthesis of approximately two molecules of ATP, compared with the approximately three ATPs produced by the oxidation of one NADH. Other enzymes can also supply electrons to UQ, including mitochondrial 5w-glyc-erophosphate dehydrogenase, an inner membrane-bound shuttle enzyme, and the fatty acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, three soluble matrix enzymes involved in fatty acid oxidation (Figure 21.7 also see Chapter 24). The path of electrons from succinate to UQ is shown in Figure 21.8. 

Why has nature chosen this rather convoluted path for electrons in Complex 111 First of all. Complex 111 takes up two protons on the matrix side of the inner membrane and releases four protons on the cytoplasmic side for each pair of electrons that passes through the Q cycle. The apparent imbalance of two protons in ior four protons out is offset by proton translocations in Complex rV, the cytochrome oxidase complex. The other significant feature of this mechanism is that it offers a convenient way for a two-electron carrier, UQHg, to interact with the bj and bfj hemes, the Rieske protein Fe-S cluster, and cytochrome C, all of which are one-electron carriers. 

Cytochrome c, like UQ is a mobile electron carrier. It associates loosely with the inner mitochondrial membrane (in the intermembrane space on the cytosolic side of the inner membrane) to acquire electrons from the Fe-S-cyt C aggregate of Complex 111, and then it migrates along the membrane surface in the reduced state, carrying electrons to cytochrome c oxidase, the fourth complex of the electron transport chain. 

An electrophoresis gel of the bovine heart complex is shown in Figure 21.14. The total mass of the protein in the complex, composed of 13 subunits, is 204 kD. Subunits I through III, the largest ones, are encoded by mitochondrial DNA, synthesized in the mitochondrion, and inserted into the inner membrane from the matrix side. The smaller subunits are coded by nuclear DNA and synthesized in the cytosol. 

FIGURE 21.21 A model for the electron transport pathway in the mitochondrial inner membrane. UQ/UQH9 and cytochrome e are mobile electron carriers and function by transferring electrons between the complexes. The proton transport driven by Complexes I, III, and IV is indicated. 

Peter Mitchell s chemiosmotic hypothesis revolutionized our thinking about the energy coupling that drives ATP synthesis by means of an electrochemical gradient. How much energy is stored in this electrochemical gradient For the transmembrane flow of protons across the inner membrane (from inside [matrix] to outside), we could write... 

FIGURE 21.23 Electron micrograph of sub-mitochondrial particles showing the 8.5-nm projections or particles on the inner membrane, eventnally shown to be Fj-ATP synthase. (Parsons, D. E, 1963. Science 140 985)... 

The mitochondrial complex that carries out ATP synthesis is called ATP synthase or sometimes FjFo-ATPase (for the reverse reaction it catalyzes). ATP synthase was observed in early electron micrographs of submitochondrial particles (prepared by sonication of inner membrane preparations) as round, 8.5-nm-diameter projections or particles on the inner membrane (Figure 21.23). In micrographs of native mitochondria, the projections appear on the matrixfacing surface of the inner membrane. Mild agitation removes the particles from isolated membrane preparations, and the isolated spherical particles catalyze ATP hydrolysis, the reverse reaction of the ATP synthase. Stripped of these particles, the membranes can still carry out electron transfer but cannot synthesize ATP. In one of the first reconstitution experiments with membrane proteins, Efraim Racker showed that adding the particles back to stripped membranes restored electron transfer-dependent ATP synthesis. 

Most of the NADH used in electron transport is produced in the mitochondrial matrix space, an appropriate site because NADH is oxidized by Complex I on the matrix side of the inner membrane. Furthermore, the inner mitochondrial membrane is impermeable to NADH. Recall, however, that NADH is produced in glycolysis by glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase in the cytosol. If this NADH were not oxidized to regenerate NAD, the glycolytic pathway would cease to function due to NAD limitation. Eukaryotic cells have a number of shuttle systems that harvest the electrons of cytosolic NADH for delivery to mitochondria without actually transporting NADH across the inner membrane (Figures 21.33 and 21.34). 

In the glycerophosphate shuttle, two different glycerophosphate dehydrogenases, one in the cytoplasm and one on the outer face of the mitochondrial inner membrane, work together to carry electrons into the mitochondrial matrix (Figure 21.32). NADH produced in the cytosol transfers its electrons to dihydroxyaeetone phosphate, thus reducing it to glyeerol-3-phosphate. This metabolite is reoxidized by the FAD -dependent mitochondrial membrane enzyme to... 

The second electron shuttle system, called the malate-aspartate shuttle, is shown in Figure 21.34. Oxaloacetate is reduced in the cytosol, acquiring the electrons of NADH (which is oxidized to NAD ). Malate is transported across the inner membrane, where it is reoxidized by malate dehydrogenase, converting NAD to NADH in the matrix. This mitochondrial NADH readily enters the electron transport chain. The oxaloacetate produced in this reaction cannot cross the inner membrane and must be transaminated to form aspartate, which can be transported across the membrane to the cytosolic side. Transamination in the cytosol recycles aspartate back to oxaloacetate. In contrast to the glycerol phosphate shuttle, the malate-aspartate cycle is reversible, and it operates as shown in Figure 21.34 only if the NADH/NAD ratio in the cytosol is higher than the ratio in the matrix. Because this shuttle produces NADH in the matrix, the full 2.5 ATPs per NADH are recovered. 

Characteristic of all chloroplasts, however, is the organization of the inner membrane system, the so-called thylakoid membrane. The thylakoid membrane... 

The link with the final electron acceptor, O2, is the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase which spans the inner membrane of the mitochondrion. It consists of cytochromes a and a3 along with two, or possibly three, Cu atoms. The details of its action are not fully established but the overall reaction catalysed by the enzyme is ... 

When the electrode is placed in an aqueous solution of glucose which has been suitably diluted with a phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.3), solution passes through the outer membrane into the enzyme where hydroxen peroxide is produced. Hydrogen peroxide can diffuse through the inner membrane which, however, is impermeable to other components of the solution. The electrode vessel contains phosphate buffer, a platinum wire and a silver wire which act as electrodes. A potential of 0.7 volts is applied to the electrodes (the apparatus shown in Fig. 16.17 is suitable) with the platinum wire as anode. At this electrode the reaction H202->02 + 2H+ +2e takes place, and the oxygen produced is reduced at the silver cathode ... 

Transport signals can be of the import or the export type. Import signals are contained in proteins that are transported into the individual compartments of mitochondria (matrix, inner membrane, intramembrane compartment, outer membrane), peroxisomes (lumen, boundary membrane) and into the interior of... 

The mitochondrion has an outer and an inner membrane (Figure 1). The outer membrane contains pores formed from a protein, porin, which allow exchange of molecules with molecular weights up to about 2,000 between the cytosol and the intermembrane space. The inner membrane is extensively invaginated to increase its surface area. It has a different lipid composition from the outer membrane and is rich in the acidic phospholipid cardiolipin (diphosphatidyl-glycerol) which is only found in animal cells in mitochondria. Cardiolipin confers good electrical insulating properties on the inner membrane which is impermeable... 

Table 1. Some Metabolite Transporters in the Inner Membrane of Muscle Mitochondria... 

Note These are examples of important transporters involved in substrate and ADP uptake into the matrix compartment as indicated, and most are reversible. These transporters are proteins and several have been isolated and sequenced. Other specific carriers occur in mitochondria from other tissues. The inner membrane does not allow rapid exchange of NAD or CoA but there are mechanisms for the slow uniport of cofactors synthesized extramitochondrially. 

Figure 3. Mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation. Long-chain fatty acids are converted to their CoA-esters as described in the text, and their fatty-acyl-groups transferred to CoA in the matrix by the concerted action of CPT 1, the acylcarnitine/carnitine exchange carrier and CPT (A) as described in the text. Medium-chain and short-chain fatty acids (Cg or less) diffuse directly into the matrix where they are converted to their acyl-CoA esters by a acyl-CoA synthase. The mechanism of p-oxidation is shown below (B). Each cycle of P-oxidation removes -CH2-CH2- as an acetyl unit until the fatty acids are completely converted to acetyl-CoA. The enzymes catalyzing each stage of P-oxidation have different but overlapping specificities. In muscle mitochondria, most acetyl-CoA is oxidized to CO2 and H2O by the citrate cycle (Figure 4) some is converted to acylcamitine by carnitine acetyltransferase (associated with the inner face of the inner membrane) and exported from the matrix. Some acetyl-CoA (if in excess) is hydrolyzed to acetate and CoASH by acetyl-CoA hydrolase in the matrix. Enzymes ...

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