Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2048960 FEBS Letters 2010 6 Pages PDF
Abstract

Three of the conserved, membrane-bound subunits in NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I) are related to one another, and to Mrp sodium-proton antiporters. Recent structural analysis of two prokaryotic complexes I revealed that the three subunits each contain fourteen transmembrane helices that overlay in structural alignments: the translocation of three protons may be coordinated by a lateral helix connecting them together (Efremov, R.G., Baradaran, R. and Sazanov, L.A. (2010). The architecture of respiratory complex I. Nature 465, 441–447). Here, we show that in higher metazoans the threefold symmetry is broken by the loss of three helices from subunit ND2; possible implications for the mechanism of proton translocation are discussed.

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