Mitochondrial respiratory electron-transfer

Cyt c has an important role in the production of ATP in the mitochondrial respiratory electron-transfer chain, cyt c transfers electrons from the transmembrane cyt bc complex to cytochrome c oxidase." " Cyt c also delivers electrons to cytochrome c peroxidase, which facilitates the reduction of hydrogen peroxide to water. In addition to its life-sustaining electron-transfer functions, cyt c is required for activation of the cell-death protease, caspase-3, in apoptosis." " Defects in cyt c biogensis have been implicated in pathogenic responses related to copper and iron metabolism, and prokaryotic heme biosynthesis. ... 

In soybean seedlings in-vivo supply of cadmium and lead was reported to stimulate the respiration rate (Lee et al., 1976a, b) this effect was ascribed to a demand for ATP production through oxidative phosphorylation because photophosphorylation was reduced. In vitro, several metal ions were effective inhibitors of the mitochondrial respiratory electron transport chain (Kleiner, 1974 Koeppe, 1977) Koeppe (1977) considered the inhibition of the electron transfer at the terminal NADH-oxidase to be specific for cadmium. 

Complexes I and III of the mitochondrial respiratory chain transfer electrons to oxygen resulting in superoxide. This process is dependent on the mitochondrial membrane potential. With increasing mitochondrial membrane potential, the respiration rates decrease. 

Atovaquone, a hydroxynaphthoquinone, selectively inhibits the respiratory chain of protozoan mitochondria at the cytochrome bcl complex (complex III) by mimicking the natural substrate, ubiquinone. Inhibition of cytochrome bcl disrupts the mitochondrial electron transfer chain and leads to a breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Atovaquone is effective against all parasite stages in humans, including the liver stages. 

In biochemical systems, acid-base and redox reactions are essential. Electron transfer plays an obvious, crucial role in photosynthesis, and redox reactions are central to the response to oxidative stress, and to the innate immune system and inflammatory response. Acid-base and proton transfer reactions are a part of most enzyme mechanisms, and are also closely linked to protein folding and stability. Proton and electron transfer are often coupled, as in almost all the steps of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. 

Now, we may consider in detail the mechanism of oxygen radical production by mitochondria. There are definite thermodynamic conditions, which regulate one-electron transfer from the electron carriers of mitochondrial respiratory chain to dioxygen these components must have the one-electron reduction potentials more negative than that of dioxygen Eq( 02 /02]) = —0.16 V. As the reduction potentials of components of respiratory chain are changed from 0.320 to +0.380 V, it is obvious that various sources of superoxide production may exist in mitochondria. As already noted earlier, the two main sources of superoxide are present in Complexes I and III of the respiratory chain in both of them, the role of ubiquinone seems to be dominant. Although superoxide may be formed by the one-electron oxidation of ubisemiquinone radical anion (Reaction (1)) [10,22] or even neutral semiquinone radical [9], the efficiency of these ways of superoxide formation in mitochondria is doubtful. 

Cytochrome bci is a multicomponent enzyme found in the inner mitochron-drial membrane of eukaryotes and in the plasma membrane of bacteria. The cytochrome bci complex functions as the middle component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, coupling electron transfer between ubiquinone/ ubiquinol (see Figure 7.27) and cytochrome c. 

The oxidation of fatty acids is catalyzed by the FAD-containing acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenases which transfer reducing equivalents to the mitochondrial respiratory chain via a flavin-containing electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) and subsequently via an ETF dehydrogenase (an Fe/S flavoprotein In addition to the mammalian... 

Energy Span of the Respiratory Chain Electron transfer in the mitochondrial respiratory chain may be represented by the net reaction equation... 

FIGURE 19-1 Biochemical anatomy of a mitochondrion. The convolutions (cristae) of the inner membrane provide a very large surface area. The inner membrane of a single liver mitochondrion may have more than 10,000 sets of electron-transfer systems (respiratory chains) and ATP synthase molecules, distributed over the membrane surface. Heart mitochondria, which have more profuse cristae and thus a much larger area of inner membrane, contain more than three times as many sets of electron-transfer systems as liver mitochondria. The mitochondrial pool of coenzymes and intermediates is functionally separate from the cytosolic pool. The mitochondria of invertebrates, plants, and microbial eukaryotes are similar to those shown here, but with much variation in size, shape, and degree of convolution of the inner membrane. 

In addition to NAD and flavoproteins, three other types of electron-carrying molecules function in the respiratory chain a hydrophobic quinone (ubiquinone) and two different types of iron-containing proteins (cytochromes and iron-sulfur proteins). Ubiquinone (also called coenzyme Q, or simply Q) is a lipid-soluble ben-zoquinone with a long isoprenoid side chain (Fig. 19-2). The closely related compounds plastoquinone (of plant chloroplasts) and menaquinone (of bacteria) play roles analogous to that of ubiquinone, carrying electrons in membrane-associated electron-transfer chains. Ubiquinone can accept one electron to become the semi-quinone radical ( QH) or two electrons to form ubiquinol (QH2) (Fig. 19-2) and, like flavoprotein carriers, it can act at the junction between a two-electron donor and a one-electron acceptor. Because ubiquinone is both small and hydrophobic, it is freely diffusible within the lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membrane and can shuttle reducing equivalents between other, less mobile electron carriers in the membrane. And because it carries both electrons and protons, it plays a central role in coupling electron flow to proton movement. 

In the overall reaction catalyzed by the mitochondrial respiratory chain, electrons move from NADH, succinate, or some other primary electron donor through flavoproteins, ubiquinone, iron-sulfur proteins, and cytochromes, and finally to 02. A look at the methods used to determine the sequence in which the carriers act is instructive, as the same general approaches have been used to study other electron-transfer chains, such as those of chloroplasts. 

Complex III Ubiquinone to Cytochrome c The next respiratory complex, Complex III, also called cytochrome focx complex or ubiquinone icytochrome c oxidoreductase, couples the transfer of electrons from ubiquinol (QH2) to cytochrome c with the vectorial transport of protons from the matrix to the intermembrane space. The determination of the complete structure of this huge complex (Fig. 19-11) and of Complex IV (below) by x-ray crystallography, achieved between 1995 and 1998, were landmarks in the study of mitochondrial electron transfer, providing the structural framework to integrate the many biochemical observations on the functions of the respiratory complexes. 

Complex IV Cytochrome c to 02 In the final step of the respiratory chain, Complex IV, also called cytochrome oxidase, carries electrons from cytochrome c to molecular oxygen, reducing it to H20. Complex IV is a large enzyme (13 subunits Mr 204,000) of the inner mitochondrial membrane. Bacteria contain a form that is much simpler, with only three or four subunits, but still capable of catalyzing both electron transfer and proton pumping. Comparison of the mitochondrial and bacterial complexes suggests that three subunits are critical to the function (Fig. 19-13). 

In the laboratory, small membrane vesicles formed from inner mitochondrial membranes carry out ATP synthesis coupled to electron transfer. When Fi is gently extracted, the stripped vesicles still contain intact respiratory chains and the F0 portion of ATP synthase. The vesicles can catalyze electron transfer from NADH to 02... 

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