Structural highlights
FunctionNQO1_THET8 NDH-1 shuttles electrons from NADH, via FMN and iron-sulfur (Fe-S) centers, to quinones in the respiratory chain. The immediate electron acceptor for the enzyme in this species is menaquinone. Couples the redox reaction to proton translocation (for every two electrons transferred, four hydrogen ions are translocated across the cytoplasmic membrane), and thus conserves the redox energy in a proton gradient required for the synthesis of ATP. The nqo1 subunit contains the NADH-binding site and the primary electron acceptor FMN. Publication Abstract from PubMedComplex I is the first and the largest enzyme of respiratory chains in bacteria and mitochondria. The mechanism which couples spatially separated transfer of electrons to proton translocation in complex I is not known. Here we report five crystal structures of T. thermophilus enzyme in complex with NADH or quinone-like compounds. We also determined cryo-EM structures of major and minor native states of the complex, differing in the position of the peripheral arm. Crystal structures show that binding of quinone-like compounds (but not of NADH) leads to a related global conformational change, accompanied by local re-arrangements propagating from the quinone site to the nearest proton channel. Normal mode and molecular dynamics analyses indicate that these are likely to represent the first steps in the proton translocation mechanism. Our results suggest that quinone binding and chemistry play a key role in the coupling mechanism of complex I. Key role of quinone in the mechanism of respiratory complex I.,Gutierrez-Fernandez J, Kaszuba K, Minhas GS, Baradaran R, Tambalo M, Gallagher DT, Sazanov LA Nat Commun. 2020 Aug 18;11(1):4135. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17957-0. PMID:32811817[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. See AlsoReferences
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