Recent advances in stucture-functional studies of mitochondrial factor B

摘要: Since the early studies on resolution and reconstitution of oxidative phosphorylation system from animal mitochondria, coupling factor B was recognized as an essential component machinery responsible for energy-driven ATP synthesis. At phenomenological level, agreed to lie at interface energy transfer between respiratory chain synthase complex. However, biochemical characterization polypeptide has proved difficult. It not until 1990 that N-terminal amino acid sequence bovine mitochondrial reported, which followed, a decade later, by report describing full-length human its functional characterization. The present review summarizes recent advances in structure-functional B, including recently determined crystal structure 0.96 A resolution. Ectopic expression cultured cells unexpectedly revealed role shaping morphology. supramolecular assembly dimer ribbons highly curved apices cristae suggested optimize synthesis under proton-limited conditions. We propose binding dimers with tetramers could be means enhance efficiency terminal step mitochondria.