Metabolism electron carriers

Ubiquinone, known also as coenzyme Q, plays a crucial role as a respiratory chain electron carrier transport in inner mitochondrial membranes. It exerts this function through its reversible reduction to semiquinone or to fully hydrogenated ubiquinol, accepting two protons and two electrons. Because it is a small lipophilic molecule, it is freely diffusable within the inner mitochondrial membrane. Ubiquinones also act as important lipophilic endogenous antioxidants and have other functions of great importance for cellular metabolism. ... 

Group-transfer reactions often involve vitamins3, which humans need to have in then-diet, since we are incapable of realizing their synthesis. These include nicotinamide (derived from the vitamin nicotinic acid) and riboflavin (vitamin B2) derivatives, required for electron transfer reactions, biotin for the transfer of C02, pantothenate for acyl group transfer, thiamine (vitamin as thiamine pyrophosphate) for transfer of aldehyde groups and folic acid (as tetrahydrofolate) for exchange of one-carbon fragments. Lipoic acid (not a vitamin) is both an acyl and an electron carrier. In addition, vitamins such as pyridoxine (vitamin B6, as pyridoxal phosphate), vitamin B12 and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) participate as cofactors in an important number of metabolic reactions. 

Figure 9.6 Sequence of electron carriers in the electron transfer chain. The positions of entry into the chain from metabolism of glucose, glutamine, fatty acyl-CoA, glycerol 3-phosphate and others that are oxidised by the Krebs cycle are shown. The chain is usually considered to start with NADH and finish with cytochrome oxidase. FMN is flavin mononucleotide FAD is flavin adenine dinucleotide.

Nicotinic acid and nicotinamide are precursors of the coenzymes NAD+ and NADP+, which play a vital role in oxidation-reduction reactions (see Box 7.6), and are the most important electron carriers in intermediary metabolism (see Section 15.1.1). We shall look further at the chemistry of NAD+ and NADP+ shortly (see Box 11.2), but note that, in these compounds, nicotinamide is bound to the rest of the molecule as an A-pyridinium salt. 

Vitamin Bj (8.44, riboflavin) is a benzopteridine derivative carrying a ribityl (reduced ribose) side chain. It occurs in almost all foods, the largest amounts being found in eggs, meat, spinach, liver, yeast, and milk. Riboflavin is one of the major electron carriers as a component of flavine-adenine dinucleotide (FAD), which is involved in carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism. A hydride ion and a proton are added to the pyrazine ring of... 

Nicotinamide (8.45) and nicotinic acid (8.46, niacin)—which have also been referred to as vitamin B3 or B5—are simple pyridine-3-carboxylic acid derivatives occurring in liver, yeast, and meat. In the form of nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide (NAD" ) or its phosphorylated form (NADP+), nicotinamide is the most important electron carrier in intermediary metabolism. Unlike FAD, it adds a hydride ion (i.e., one pair of electrons and one hydrogen) only. 

Fig. 4 Speculative metabolic schemes of the main pathways in carbohydrate metabolism in Dasytricha sp. (after Ellis et al. 1991) Abbreviations AcCoA, acetyl-CoA, Hyd, hydro-genase, PEP, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, PFO, pyruvate ferredoxin oxidoreduc-tase, PYR, pyruvate, X0Xj re(j, unknown electron carrier...

T. vaginalis NDH transfers electrons to ferredoxin, which serves as a terminal electron carrier donating the electrons to the drug (Fig. 4). Attention to this pathway was drawn by earlier metabolic studies on the biochemical background of drug resistance development in T. vaginalis (Rasoloson et al. 2002), in particular by a need to explain the partial susceptibility of PFOR-deficient T. vaginalis lines to metronidazole (see below). Hrdy et al. (2005) provided direct evidence that the pathway is functional in both wild-... 

Catabolism is the degradative phase of metabolism in which organic nutrient molecules (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) are converted into smaller, simpler end products (such as lactic acid, C02, NH3). Catabolic pathways release energy, some of which is conserved in the formation of ATP and reduced electron carriers (NADH, NADPH, and FADH2) the rest is lost as heat. In anabolism, also called biosynthesis, small, simple precursors are built up into larger and more complex... 

The transfer of phosphoryl groups is a central feature of metabolism. Equally important is another kind of transfer, electron transfer in oxidation-reduction reactions. These reactions involve the loss of electrons by one chemical species, which is thereby oxidized, and the gain of electrons by another, which is reduced. The flow of electrons in oxidation-reduction reactions is responsible, directly or indirectly, for all work done by living organisms. In nonphotosynthetic organisms, the sources of electrons are reduced compounds (foods) in photosynthetic organisms, the initial electron donor is a chemical species excited by the absorption of light. The path of electron flow in metabolism is complex. Electrons move from various metabolic intermediates to specialized electron carriers in enzyme-catalyzed reactions. 

The citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle, TCA cycle) is a nearly universal central catabolic pathway in which compounds derived from the breakdown of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are oxidized to C02, with most of the energy of oxidation temporarily held in the electron carriers FADH2 and NADH. During aerobic metabolism, these electrons are transferred to 02 and the energy of electron flow is trapped as ATP. 

In most organisms undergoing aerobic metabolism, pyruvate is oxidized to acetyl-CoA in a complex process involving its decarboxylation (Eq. 10-6). This oxidative decarboxylation, like the decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetaldehyde, requires thiamin diphosphate. In addition, an array of other catalysts participate in the process (see Fig. 15-15). Among these are the electron carrier flavin adenine diphosphate (FAD), which is derived from the vitamin riboflavin. Like NAD+, this... 

Nicotinamide coenzymes act as intracellular electron carriers to transport reducing equivalents between metabolic intermediates. They are cosubstrates in most of the biological redox reactions of alcohols and carbonyl compounds and also act as cocatalysts with some enzymes. 

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