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. 1972 Jul;50(1):95–102. doi: 10.1104/pp.50.1.95

The Respiratory Chain of Plant Mitochondria

XIV. Ordering of Ubiquinone, Flavoproteins, and Cytochromes in the Respiratory Chain

Bayard T Storey a, James T Bahr a,1
PMCID: PMC367322  PMID: 16658140

Abstract

The effect of initial oxygen concentration on the rate and extent of oxidation of the respiratory chain carriers of anaerobic mitochondria from mung bean (Phaseolus aureus) seedlings was examined. The substrate was succinate, with malonate added to give malonate to succinate ratios of 6 to 12, thereby minimizing the flow of reducing equivalents from substrate and insuring maximal extent of oxidation of the carriers. The ratio of oxidizing equivalents available from oxygen to reducing equivalents available from reduced ubiquinone, designated the equivalents ratio, varied from 30 to 1. Cytochromes aa3 and c547 have unaltered oxidation half-times, designated t½ on, as the equivalents ratio is reduced from 30 to 3, and the extent of oxidation is decreased by about 25%. The time of the oxidation-reduction cycle induced by the oxygen pulse, calculated from the point of half oxidation to that of half reduction and designated t½ off, decreases 200 fold with this reduction in equivalents ratio. The oxidation half-time, t½ on, for ubiquinone is unaltered by decreasing the equivalents ratio from 6 to 1; the value of t½ off decreases only 30% while the extent of oxidation decreases 50%. The values of t½ on and t½ off and the extent of oxidation of cytochrome b553 and flavoprotein Fpha were all much reduced at low equivalents ratios. The results, plus results from previous studies, indicate that there is the following linear sequence of components in the plant respiratory chain:

Dehydrogenase·UQ·Fpha·b553· c549·a·a3

Cytochrome b557 and the low potential flavoproteins do not fit into this linear sequence.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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