Premium
The apparent non‐linearity of the relationship between the rate of respiration and the protonmotive force of mitochondria can be explained by heterogeneity of mitochondrial preparations
Author(s) -
Duszyński Jerzy,
Wojtczak Lech
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(85)80307-0
Subject(s) - mitochondrion , respiration , biophysics , chemistry , chemiosmosis , membrane potential , organelle , slippage , coupling (piping) , proton pump , cellular respiration , biochemistry , biology , atp synthase , atpase , anatomy , materials science , metallurgy , composite material , enzyme
The apparent non‐linear relationship between the rate of respiration and the protonmotive force in mitochondria under resting state conditions is an observation which has led to concepts such as (i) non‐chute characteristics of the proton leak through the mitochondrial membrane, or (ii) a slippage of proton pumps. We propose that this non‐linearity may be a consequence of a heterogeneity of isolated mitochondria concerning the degree of coupling, since a small proportion of totally uncoupled, or loosely coupled, organelles may considerably contribute to the total respiration but not, or only slightly, to the protonmotive force. This hypothesis is supported by a fairly good fitting of computed relationships with those determined experimentally.