scholarly journals Bacterial respiration keeps amazing us in the 21st century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiel Hards ◽  
Gregory Cook ◽  
Lars J.C. Jeuken

The last two decades have seen some remarkable discoveries in bacterial bioenergetics. In this article, we highlight how important societal issues such as antimicrobial resistance and sustainable fuel production have led to a renewed focus on the bioenergetics of bacteria, which is only beginning to show us how much we have left to learn. Advances in technology, particularly through biophysics, have further contributed to a rapid progress in our understanding of the respiratory chain complexes in bacteria. Blue-sky research has seamlessly merged with solutions to societal problems and we stand on the precipice of a number of exciting discoveries in this field.

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 1674
Author(s):  
M. J. Zamiri ◽  
R. Mehrabi ◽  
G. R. Kavoosi ◽  
H. Rajaei Sharifabadi

The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes in pre- and post-slaughter muscle samples and residual feed intake (RFI) in Ghezel male lambs born as a result of random mating. The study was based on the hypothesis that random-bred lambs with lower feed (or higher) RFI have lower (or higher) respiratory chain-complex activity in muscle samples. Lambs (n = 30) were fed a diet consisting of 70% concentrate and 30% alfalfa hay during a 70-day period. Individual feed intake and average daily gain were recorded to calculate the RFI, feed-conversion ratio (FCR) and adjusted FCR (aFCR). On the basis of these calculations, the lambs were classified into low and high groups for RFI, with FCR and aFCR (n = 22) being one standard deviation above or below the means; this was corroborated by Student’s t-test (P < 0.01). At the end of the experiment, a 10-g biopsy sample was taken from the posterior side of the left femoral biceps. After 24 h, the lambs were slaughtered, and a sample from the posterior side of the right femoral biceps was dissected for determination of mitochondrial protein and respiratory chain-complex activities (Complexes I–V). The RFI was not correlated with the metabolic bodyweight and average daily gain, but was positively correlated (r = 0.56) with the average daily feed intake (P < 0.01); mean daily feed intake in the low-RFI group was 200 g less than that in the high-RFI group. The FCR and aFCR were not significantly (P > 0.05) correlated with average daily feed intake (r = 0.39 and r = 0.36 respectively), but showed a negative correlation (P < 0.01) with average daily gain (r = –0.73 and r = –0.76 respectively). Although very high negative correlations were recorded between the activities of all five respiratory-chain complexes and RFI in muscle samples obtained before (–0.91 to –0.97) and after (–0.92 to –0.97) slaughter, Complexes I and V showed small negative correlations (–0.40) with FCR or aFCR (P < 0.05). Enzyme activities of the respiratory-chain Complexes I, III and V were not significantly different between the pre- and post-slaughter biopsy samples; however, the enzyme activities of respiratory-chain Complexes II and IV were slightly higher in post-slaughter samples (P < 0.01). These results suggested that it may be possible to use the enzymatic activity of respiratory-chain complexes in muscle biopsy samples for screening of lambs for RFI, providing a useful procedure for genetic selection of lambs for this component of feed efficiency. These encouraging results need to be verified in further experiments using other sheep breeds and a larger number of lambs.


1999 ◽  
pp. 357-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Malgat ◽  
T. Letellier ◽  
G. Durrieu ◽  
J.-P. Mazat

2006 ◽  
Vol 291 (6) ◽  
pp. C1172-C1182 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Benard ◽  
B. Faustin ◽  
E. Passerieux ◽  
A. Galinier ◽  
C. Rocher ◽  
...  

To investigate the physiological diversity in the regulation and control of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, we determined the composition and functional features of the respiratory chain in muscle, heart, liver, kidney, and brain. First, we observed important variations in mitochondrial content and infrastructure via electron micrographs of the different tissue sections. Analyses of respiratory chain enzyme content by Western blot also showed large differences between tissues, in good correlation with the expression level of mitochondrial transcription factor A and the activity of citrate synthase. On the isolated mitochondria, we observed a conserved molar ratio between the respiratory chain complexes and a variable stoichiometry for coenzyme Q and cytochrome c, with typical values of [1–1.5]:[30–135]:[3]:[9–35]:[6.5–7.5] for complex II:coenzyme Q:complex III:cytochrome c:complex IV in the different tissues. The functional analysis revealed important differences in maximal velocities of respiratory chain complexes, with higher values in heart. However, calculation of the catalytic constants showed that brain contained the more active enzyme complexes. Hence, our study demonstrates that, in tissues, oxidative phosphorylation capacity is highly variable and diverse, as determined by different combinations of 1) the mitochondrial content, 2) the amount of respiratory chain complexes, and 3) their intrinsic activity. In all tissues, there was a large excess of enzyme capacity and intermediate substrate concentration, compared with what is required for state 3 respiration. To conclude, we submitted our data to a principal component analysis that revealed three groups of tissues: muscle and heart, brain, and liver and kidney.


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