The interaction of energy and electron transfer reactions in mitochondria. V. The energy transfer pathway.

A study of the velocity with which adenosine 5’triphosphate interacts with the carriers of the respiratory chain presents an unusual opportunity to explore the mechanism of action of the energy transfer pathway (1). Previous studies of this mechanism have been limited to: (a) systems in which a portion of the pathway toward the carriers was measured by the Oi8 exchange reaction (2)) the adenosine 5’-triphosphate-P” exchange reaction (3, 4) (Equations 1 and 2) ; and (b) adenosine 5’-triphosphatase reactions (5, 6) in which high energy intermediates (X I (7)) are rapidly hydrolyzed by treatment with uncoupling agents (Equations 1 to 3) :