Abstract
With the use of a specially developed incubation chamber the rates of motility, respiration, and fructolysis were measured simultaneously on semen samples. By inhibiting the respiration with antimycin A, and/or the fructolysis with 2-deoxyglucose, the rates of each of the two ATP-producing pathways could be reduced independently. In this way the ratio of the amount of free energy produced by respiration and by fructolysis could be varied at will from 1 to 0. In uninhibited preparations approximately 75% of the free energy derives from respiration, and 25% from fructolysis. By the use of the absolute rates of respiration, fructolysis, and motility, the efficiency of the conversion of free energy into hydrodynamic work was calculated. After correction for the decay of the preparation during the experiment, this conversion efficiency was found to be 30–45% lower for free energy from respiration than for free energy from fructolysis. The difference in distribution of the enzymes for fructolysis and respiration over the flagellum was ruled out as the cause of the efficiency difference. The respiration could be 70% inhibited by oligomycin. It is concluded that approximately one-third of the free energy from respiration is used for maintenance of the mitochondria.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.3 MB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- BHARVAGA P. M., BISHOP M. W., WORK T. S. The chemical composition of bull semen with special reference to nucleic acids, free nucleotides and free amino acids. Biochem J. 1959 Oct;73:242–247. doi: 10.1042/bj0730242. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- BOWEN W. J., MARTIN H. L. THE DIFFUSION OF ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE THROUGH AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1964 Jul;107:30–36. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(64)90265-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brokaw C. J., Benedict B. Mechanochemical coupling in flagella. II. Effects of viscosity and thiourea on metabolism and motility of Ciona spermatozoa. J Gen Physiol. 1968 Aug;52(2):283–299. doi: 10.1085/jgp.52.2.283. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- CHANCE B., WILLIAMS G. R. The respiratory chain and oxidative phosphorylation. Adv Enzymol Relat Subj Biochem. 1956;17:65–134. doi: 10.1002/9780470122624.ch2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Caplan S. R. A characteristic of self-regulated linear energy converters. The Hill force-velocity relation for muscle. J Theor Biol. 1966 May;11(1):63–86. doi: 10.1016/0022-5193(66)90040-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- HOLWILL M. E., BURGE R. E. A hydrodynamic study of the motility of flagellated bacteria. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1963 May;101:249–260. doi: 10.1016/s0003-9861(63)80010-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kraayenhof R., van Dam K. Interaction between uncouplers and substrates in rat-liver mitochondria. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1969 Feb 25;172(2):189–197. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(69)90062-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- LEUCHTENBERGER C., MURMANIS I., MURMANIS L., ITO S., WEIR D. R. Interferometric dry mass and microspectrophotometric arginine determinations on bull sperm nuclei with normal and abnormal DNA content. Chromosoma. 1956;8(1):73–86. doi: 10.1007/BF01259494. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wilson D. F., Merz R. Inhibition of mitochondrial respiration by uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation. II. The site of inhibition of succinate oxidation by the uncouplers. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1969 Jan;129(1):79–85. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(69)90153-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]