Open AccessAnalysis of Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Supercomplexes Using Blue Native Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (BN‐PAGE)
Author(s) -
Jha Pooja,
Wang Xu,
Auwerx Johan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
current protocols in mouse biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.77
H-Index - 15
ISSN - 2161-2617
DOI - 10.1002/9780470942390.mo150182
Subject(s) - oxidative phosphorylation , electron transport chain , polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis , mitochondrion , organelle , respiratory chain , gel electrophoresis , biochemistry , inner mitochondrial membrane , electrophoresis , mitochondrial respiratory chain , biology , mitochondrial dna , chemistry , biophysics , polyacrylamide , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , enzyme
Mitochondria are cellular organelles that harvest energy in the form of ATP through a process termed oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), which occurs via the protein complexes of the electron transport chain (ETC). In recent years it has become unequivocally clear that mitochondrial complexes of the ETC are not static entities in the inner mitochondrial membrane. These complexes are dynamic and in mammals they aggregate in different stoichiometric combinations to form supercomplexes (SCs) or respirasomes. It has been proposed that the net respiration is more efficient via SCs than via isolated complexes. However, it still needs to be determined whether the activity of a particular SC is associated with a disease etiology. Here we describe a simplified method to visualize and assess in‐gel activity of SCs and the individual complexes with good resolution using blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (BN‐PAGE). © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.