scholarly journals The role of succinate in the respiratory chain of Trypanosoma brucei procyclic trypomastigotes

1989 ◽  
Vol 259 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
J F Turrens

Trypanosoma brucei procyclic trypomastigotes were made permeable by using digitonin (0-70 micrograms/mg of protein). This procedure allowed exposure of coupled mitochondria to different substrates. Only succinate and glycerol phosphate (but not NADH-dependent substrates) were capable of stimulating oxygen consumption. Fluorescence studies on intact cells indicated that addition of succinate stimulates NAD(P)H oxidation, contrary to what happens in mammalian mitochondria. Addition of malonate, an inhibitor of succinate dehydrogenase, stimulated NAD(P)H reduction. Malonate also inhibited intact-cell respiration and motility, both of which were restored by further addition of succinate. Experiments carried out with isolated mitochondrial membranes showed that, although the electron transfer from succinate to cytochrome c was inhibitable by antimycin, NADH-cytochrome c reductase was antimycin-insensitive. We postulate that the NADH-ubiquinone segment of the respiratory chain is replaced by NADH-fumarate reductase, which reoxidizes the mitochondrial NADH and in turn generates succinate for the respiratory chain. This hypothesis is further supported by the inhibitory effect on cell growth and respiration of 3-methoxyphenylacetic acid, an inhibitor of the NADH-fumarate reductase of T. brucei.

1983 ◽  
Vol 214 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Lloyd ◽  
H Mellor ◽  
J L Williams

Apparent Km values for O2 for the soil amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii determined polarographically and by bioluminescence gave similar values (0.37 and 0.41 microM respectively). Mitochondria oxidizing succinate or NADH in the presence or absence of ADP gave values in the range 0.21-0.36 microM-O2. Oxidation of respiratory-chain components to 50% of the aerobic steady states in intact cells was observed at the following O2 concentrations: cytochrome aa3, 0.1-0.25 microM; cytochrome c, 0.3-0.6 microM; cytochrome b, 0.35-0.45 microM; flavoprotein, 2 microM. In isolated mitochondria corresponding values for a-, c- and b-type cytochromes were 0.007, 0.035-0.05 and 0.06-0.09 microM-O2. It is concluded that an O2 gradient exists between plasma membrane and mitochondria in A. castellanii.


1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gian Luigi Sottocasa ◽  
Bo Kuylenstierna ◽  
Lars Ernster ◽  
Anders Bergstrand

Preparations of rat-liver mitochondria catalyze the oxidation of exogenous NADH by added cytochrome c or ferricyanide by a reaction that is insensitive to the respiratory chain inhibitors, antimycin A, amytal, and rotenone, and is not coupled to phosphorylation. Experiments with tritiated NADH are described which demonstrate that this "external" pathway of NADH oxidation resembles stereochemically the NADH-cytochrome c reductase system of liver microsomes, and differs from the respiratory chain-linked NADH dehydrogenase. Enzyme distributation data are presented which substantiate the conclusion that microsomal contamination cannot account for the rotenone-insensitive NADH-cytochrome c reductase activity observed with the mitochondria. A procedure is developed, based on swelling and shrinking of the mitochondria followed by sonication and density gradient centrifugation, which permits the separation of two particulate subfractions, one containing the bulk of the respiratory chain components, and the other the bulk of the rotenone-insensitive NADH-cytochrome c reductase system. Morphological evidence supports the conclusion that the former subfraction consists of mitochondria devoid of outer membrane, and that the latter represents derivatives of the outer membrane. The data indicate that the electron-transport system associated with the mitochondrial outer membrane involves catalytic components similar to, or identical with, the microsomal NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase and cytochrome b5.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina Mitra ◽  
Bharati Bhattacharjee ◽  
Palash Kumar Pal ◽  
Arnab Kumar Ghosh ◽  
Sanatan Mishra ◽  
...  

Cadmium (Cd) is a notorious environmental pollutant known for its wide range of toxicities to organisms. Thus, the present study is designed to examine whether melatonin, a potent antioxidant, protects against Cd-induced oxidative damage in the heart, liver and kidney of rats. Cd treatment at a dose of 0.44 mg/kg for 15 days caused severe damage in all these organs. These included significantly increased activities of SGPT, SGOT, lactate dehydrogenase- 1 and 5 and ALP and levels of total lactate, creatinine, lipid peroxidation, protein carbonyl content and reduced glutathione while the activities of superoxide dismutases, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione-S-transferase along with mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, α-keto glutarate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, NADH-cytochrome-c-oxidoreductase and cytochrome-c-oxidase were significantly reduced by Cd. However, if melatonin was given orally 30 min before Cd injection, all these alterations induced by Cd were significantly preserved by melatonin. Histological observations also demonstrated that Cd exposure caused cellular lesions, promoting necrotic or apoptotic changes. Notably, all these changes were significantly protected by melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin is a beneficial molecule to ameliorate Cd-induced oxidative damage in the heart, liver and kidney tissues of rats with its powerful antioxidant capacity, heavy metal chelating activity and competition of binding sites with Cd to the GSH and catalase.


FEBS Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Schenk ◽  
Sabine Bachmaier ◽  
Frédéric Bringaud ◽  
Michael Boshart

1978 ◽  
Vol 174 (1) ◽  
pp. 267-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Barrett ◽  
C N Hunter ◽  
O T G Jones

Differential centrifugation of suspensions of French-press-disrupted Rhodopseudomonas spheroides yielded a light particulate fraction that was different in many properties from the bulk membrane fraction. It was enriched in cytochrome c and had a low cytochrome b content. When prepared from photosynthetically grown cells this fraction had a very low specific bacteriochlorophyll content. The cytochrome c of the light particles differed in absorption maxima at 77K from cytochrome c2 attached to membranes; there was pronounced splitting of the alpha-band, as is found in cytochrome c2 free in solution. Potentiometric titration at A552–A540 showed the presence of two components that fitted an n = 1 titration; one component had a midpoint redox potential of +345mV, like cytochrome c2 in solution, and the second had E0′ at pH 7.0 of +110 mV, and they were present in a ratio of approx. 2:3. Difference spectroscopy at 77K showed that the spectra of the two components were very similar. More of a CO-binding component was present in particles from photosynthetically grown cells. Light membranes purified by centrifugation on gradients of 5–60% (w/w) sucrose retained the two c cytochromes; they contained no detectable succinate-cytochrome c reductase or bacteriochlorophyll and very little ubiquinone, but they contained NADH-cytochrome c reductase and some phosphate. Electrophoresis on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels showed that the light membranes of aerobically and photosynthetically grown cells were very similar and differed greatly from other membrane fractions of R. spheroides.


1984 ◽  
Vol 220 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Soboll ◽  
H J Seitz ◽  
H Sies ◽  
B Ziegler ◽  
R Scholz

The effect of long-chain acyl-CoA on subcellular adenine nucleotide systems was studied in the intact liver cell. Long-chain acyl-CoA content was varied by varying the nutritional state (fed and starved states) or by addition of oleate. Starvation led to an increase in the mitochondrial and a decrease in the cytosolic ATP/ADP ratio in liver both in vivo and in the isolated perfused organ as compared with the fed state. The changes were reversed on re-feeding glucose in liver in vivo or on infusion of substrates (glucose, glycerol) in the perfused liver, respectively. Similar changes in mitochondrial and cytosolic ATP/ADP ratios occurred on addition of oleate, but, importantly, not with a short-chain fatty acid such as octanoate. It is concluded that long-chain acyl-CoA exerts an inhibitory effect on mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocation in the intact cell, as was previously postulated in the literature from data obtained with isolated mitochondria. The physiological relevance with respect to pyruvate metabolism, i.e. regulation of pyruvate carboxylase and pyruvate dehydrogenase by the mitochondrial ATP/ADP ratio, is discussed.


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