Electron Transport Chains and Photosynthesis Flashcards
(114 cards)
give an overview of the production of energy from glucose?
- oxidation
- high energy electrons carried by NADH
- electron transport chain
- ATP produced
- oxygen is the final electron acceptor
how much energy is produced by glucose?
free energy = -2850kJ/mol
energy density of 17mJ/Kg
how much NADH is produced at each stage?
2 mol of NADH produced in glycolysis (cytosolic)
2 mol of NADH from oxidation of pyruvate (mitochondrial)
6 mol of NADH in the citric acid cycle (mitochondrial)
describe the electron transport chain
- 4 big complexes
- ATP synthase
- accepts electrons
- travel through different components
- oxygen = final acceptor
- bacteria can use other molecules
- energy produced is used to pump protons
what is the purpose of the proton pump?
- pumps protons from the matrix into the intermembrane space
- forms a proton gradient
- used to energize the ATP synthase
describe the reduction of NAD+ to NADH
- endergonic
- happens on nicotinamide
- involves 2 electrons and proton
- redox potential: E0 = -0.32V
what does a negative redox potential mean?
- reaction is not spontaneous
- doesn’t want to move in that direction
what happens when NADH feeds electrons into the electron transport chain?
- oxidised to NAD+
- oxygen accepts electrons and is reduced to water
- coupled to formation of ATP
what percentage of our energy is conserved?
70-80%
what is the pathway from NADH to O2?
- not a single step reaction
- multiple steps allow conservation of free energy (as ATP) at discrete points in the pathway
- this reaction sequence is accomplished by the respiratory chain which is an e- transport pathway
- the enzymes that catalyse the reactions of the repiratory chain are all membrane bound
what are the 4 main complexes
- It goes Complex 1 → Complex 3 → Complex 4
- Complex 2 feeds in from the citric pathway between complex 1 and complex 3
what happens at complex I?
- NADH → UQ Oxidoreductase
- Catalyzes transfer of 2e- from NADH to ubiquinone
- NADH oxidised initially by a flavoprotein, contains flavin mononucleotide (FMN) as a prosthetic group
- Electrons then passed to Fe/S centres
- each centre is reduced by just 1e
- Energy produced is conserved in conformational changes
- When electrons hop through the chain of Fe/S clusters every time a little bit of energy is used to cause a conformational change → attached to a part of the protein which pushes protons from one end to the other end
what is the structure of complex I?
- Fe/S centres = iron sulfur centre (non- haem iron proteins) → each Fe/S centre is covalently linked to Cys residues in protein
- Arrangement of FeS clusters forms the ‘electron wire’
Multiprotein complex
what is complex I inhibited by?
rotenone/NO
what happens at complex II?
essentially a part of the citric acid cycle
Succinate dehydrogenase
Catalyses oxidation of succinate and reduction of UQ
1 flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD which is reduced to FADH2 covalently bound to protein) → delivers electrons
3 Fe/S centres
what happens at complex III?
- UQ-Cyt c oxidoreductase
- Each cytochrome is reduced by 1e-
- The Fe atom coordinated in the porphyrin ring is reduced: Fe3+ → Fe2+
what is the structure of complex III?
2 b-type cytochromes → named after their absorption of light
1 Fe/S centre (Rieske protein)
Cytochrome C1
Cytochromes: a haem prosthetic group bound to a protein
Iron is in its haem form → similar to haemoglobin
what is cytochrome C?
The only component of the respiratory chain which is not an integral part of the membrane
Nevertheless, it is bound loosely to the outer side of the inner membrane
Shuttles between complex III and complex IV → picks up electrons from 3 and moves them onto 4
what happens at complex IV?
- Cytochrome c oxidase
- Accepts 4e- from cytochrome c (=4 separate turnovers of cytochrome c)
- System essentially has to store electrons until there a 4
- When fully reduced can the reduce O2 together with 4H+ → 2H2O
- Oxygen reduction on matrix side of the membrane
what is the inhibtor of complex III?
antimycin
what is the structure of complex IV?
Cytochromes a1, a3
2 copper atoms (CuA, CuB) → easily reduced and oxidised
Multiprotein complex
what are the inhibitors of complex IV?
CN cyanide (blocks the copper centres for picking up electrons), CO (replaces oxygen on the binding site), azides
how can we determine which complexes actually make ATP?
- coupling ratios
- Can use oxygen electrodes to study the system
Measure O2 consumption by mitochondria in a closed chamber with O2 electrode and observe
Background respiration observed with respiratory substrate (NADH)
Addition of ADP → large increase in respiratory rate. When ADP is all phosphorylate, rate returns to background rate
i.e. the e- transport and phosphorylation reactions are COUPLED
If a known amount of ADP is added the amount of O2 used during phosphorylation can be measure to give:
ADP: O2 ration (P:O ratio)
P:O ratio is a measure of the number of ATP molecules synthesized per pair of e- passing down the respiratory chain
You can then look at different inhibitors and use different substrate
how can P:O ratios be used to identify the coupling sites in the respiratory chain?
Establish P:O with different substrate that act on different complexes
At which points of respiration chain is the thermodynamically downhill flow of electrons coupled to synthesis of ATP??
Conclude → complexes I, III, IV are all coupling sites but no ATP is produced by complex II