Virtual mitochondrion

Mitochondrion.

Diverse biological data may be used to create illustrations of molecules in their cellular context. I describe the scientific results that support a recent textbook illustration of a mitochondrion. The image magnifies a portion of the mitochondrion by one million times, showing the location and form of membranes and individual macromolecules, revealing the molecular basis of its role in energy ...

Lead and the mitochondrion.

In studies on the distribution of lead in rats given drinking water containing lead acetate at concentrations: 0, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 ,ugPb/l for one year, no change was observed in the organ distribution of lead, or in the subcellular distribution of lead in the organelles in the heart. The mitochondrial enzyme, ferrochelatase, was significantly depressed in both the 500 and 1000 ptg/l gro...

Is myelin a mitochondrion?

It has been hypothesized that myelin acts like a mitochondrion, generating ATP across the membranes of its sheath. By calculating the proton motive force across the myelin membrane based on known values for the pH and membrane potential of the oligodendrocyte, we find that insufficient energy could be harvested from proton flow across the myelin membrane to synthesize ATP. In fact, if the respi...

Virtual mitochondrion: towards an integrated model of oxidative phosphorylation complexes and beyond.

The modelling of OXPHOS (oxidative phosphorylation) in order to integrate all kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of chemiosmotic theory has a long history. We briefly review this history and show how new ways of modelling are required to integrate a local model of the individual respiratory complexes into a global model of OXPHOS and, beyond that, into a reliable overall model of central metabol...

Systems biology of the mitochondrion.