Scan

Title: Exploring membrane respiratory chains

Speaker: Ana Patrícia Refojo

Affiliation: Biological Energy Transduction Lab, ITQB NOVA

Abstracts:

The diversity of microbial cells is reflected in differences in cell size and shape, motility, mechanisms of cell division, pathogenicity or adaptation to different environmental niches. All these variations are achieved by the distinct metabolic strategies adopted by the organisms. The respiratory chains are integral parts of those strategies especially because they perform most energy conservation in the cell, or at least the most efficient one. Respiratory chains are composed of several proteins, which perform stepwise oxidation of metabolites toward the reduction of terminal electron acceptors. Many of these enzymes are membrane proteins that use the free energy released from the oxidoreduction reaction that they catalyze to translocate charges across the membrane, contributing in this way to the establishment of the membrane potential, i.e. they conserve energy.

In this talk we will disclose and explore the diversity and flexibility of respiratory chains. Namely we will focus the presence of several enzymes performing the same oxidoreduction activity and the possible usage of different electron donors and acceptors and how those are related to the organism and its environment.