Analysis of respiratory electron transport chain using the paramagnetic probes

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K20829
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Structural biochemistry; Molecular biology
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: SAIO Tomohide 北海道大学, 理学研究院, 助教 (80740802)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 呼吸鎖 / 電子伝達 / NMR / 立体構造 / ダイナミクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Electron transfer (ET) process is at the heart of a number of key physiological processes, such as aerobic and anaerobic respiration. Among them, ET from Cytochrome c (Cyt c) to Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) in mitochondrial respiration is one of the best-studied processes. In this project, we took an NMR-based approach exploiting paramagnetic effects and relaxation dispersion method, and redox-dependent structural and dynamical changes of human Cyt c were investigated. Our study identified significant redox-dependent structural changes in several regions of Cyt c. These differences would be essential for the discrimination of the redox states in Cyt c by CcO during the electron transfer. Dynamics studies by NMR identified that the region around His33 undergoes conformational exchanges, suggesting that the dynamic property of the region located far from the binding site for CcO contributes to the conformational changes upon the electron transfer.

Free Research Field

構造生命科学