Chemiosmotic Hypothesis of Oxidative Phosphorylation

Organelle isolation: functional mitochondria from mouse liver, muscle and cultured filroblasts

“…This approach was a real Copernican revolution for mitochondrial research, allowing the isolation of pure organelles with high yields. As a practical consequence, in the subsequent 20 years, we saw such amazing discoveries: the mechanism of energy conservation 4 ; the identification of mitochondrial DNA 5,6 and of import of mitochondrial precursor proteins 7 ; the definition of mitochondrial ultrastructure, with the development of the so-called ''Palade's model'' 8 ; and last but not least, the discovery of inner mitochondrial membrane channels 9 .…”

The Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU): Molecular Identity and Physiological Roles

“…Indeed, Ca 2ϩ uptake by energized isolated mitochondria was directly measured half a century ago (14 -16). It is remarkable that this experimental observation anticipated the chemiosmotic theory that provides the thermodynamic basis for rapid accumulation of a positively charged ion into the mitochondrial matrix (17). In the following 2 decades, the process of mitochondrial Ca 2ϩ accumulation was thoroughly investigated.…”

Mitochondria in human oogenesis and preimplantation embryogenesis: engines of metabolism, ionic regulation and developmental competence

“…Mitochondrial respiration involves outward proton pumping across the inner mitochondrial membrane that creates a proton gradient that has two components, a DC M and a pH gradient, with the energy stored in either component driving the conversion of ADP to ATP by respiratory chain enzymes. The relationship between DC M and oxidative metabolism first described by Mitchell & Moyle (1967) has been studied in somatic cells with DC M -sensitive fluorescent reporter probes. One particular molecule, 5,5 0 6,6 0 -tetrachloro-1,1,3,3 0 -tetraethylbenzimidazolycarbocyanine iodide (JC-1), has become widely used to assess the relative magnitude of DC M since its specificity as a polarity reporter was first described by Reers et al (1991) and shown by Smiley et al (1991) to be able to detect domains of high and low polarity within individual mitochondria.…”