Mitochondrial respiratory supercomplexes, comprising complexes I, III, and IV, are the minimal functional units of the electron transport chain. Assembling the individual complexes into supercomplexes may stabilize them, provide greater spatiotemporal control of respiration, or, controversially, confer kinetic advantages through the sequestration of local quinone and cytochrome c pools (substrate channeling). Here, we have incorporated an alternative quinol oxidase (AOX) into mammalian heart mitochondrial membranes to introduce a competing pathway for quinol oxidation and test for channeling. AOX substantially increases the rate of NADH oxidation by O without affecting the membrane integrity, the supercomplexes, or NADH-linked oxidative phosphorylation. Therefore, the quinol generated in supercomplexes by complex I is reoxidized more rapidly outside the supercomplex by AOX than inside the supercomplex by complex III. Our results demonstrate that quinone and quinol diffuse freely in and out of supercomplexes: substrate channeling does not occur and is not required to support respiration.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.05.024 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
January 2025
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02134, USA.
Many aquatic organisms utilize suction-based organs to adhere to diverse substrates in unpredictable environments. For multiple fish species, these adhesive discs include a softer disc margin consisting of surface structures called papillae, which stabilize and seal on variable substrates. The size, arrangement, and density of these papillae are quite diverse among different species, generating complex disc patterns produced by these structures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubcell Biochem
December 2024
Centro de Tecnologías Físicas, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain.
A virus is a complex molecular machine that propagates by channeling its genetic information from cell to cell. Unlike macroscopic engines, it operates in a nanoscopic world under continuous thermal agitation. Viruses have developed efficient passive and active strategies to pack and release nucleic acids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States.
The direct epitaxial growth of high-quality III-V semiconductors on Si is a challenging materials science problem with a number of applications in optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells and on-chip lasers. We report the reduction of dislocation density in GaAs solar cells grown directly on nanopatterned V-groove Si substrates by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy. Starting from a template of GaP on V-groove Si, we achieved a low threading dislocation density (TDD) of 3 × 10 cm in the GaAs by performing thermal cycle annealing of the GaAs followed by growth of InGaAs dislocation filter layers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn unusual family of bifunctional terpene synthases has been discovered in which both catalytic domains - a prenyltransferase and a cyclase - are connected by a long, flexible linker. These enzymes are unique to fungi and catalyze the first committed steps in the biosynthesis of complex terpenoid natural products: the prenyltransferase assembles 5-carbon precursors to form C geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP), and the cyclase converts GGPP into a polycyclic hydrocarbon product. Weak domain-domain interactions as well as linker flexibility render these enzymes refractory to crystallization and challenge their visualization by cryo-EM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Nano
December 2024
Department of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.
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