ATP hydrolysis induces variable porosity to mannitol in the mitochondrial inner membrane

The alternative oxidase mediated respiration contributes to growth, resistance to hyperosmotic media and accumulation of secondary metabolites in three species

Plant respiration, similar to respiration in animal mitochondria, exhibits both osmosensitive and insensitive components with the clear distinction that the insensitive respiration in plants is quantitatively better described as 'less' sensitive rather than 'insensitive'. Salicylic hydroxamic acid (SHAM)-sensitive respiration was compared with the respiration sensitive to other inhibitors in rice, yeast and Dunaliella salina. The influence of SHAM was largely in the osmotically less sensitive component and enhanced with external osmotic pressure unlike other inhibitors that inhibited the osmotically sensitive component. SHAM inhibited germination and root growth but not shoot growth. Osmotic remediation of respiration that developed in due course of time with rice seedlings was abolished by SHAM and was not due to water and ionic uptake mechanisms. Yeast and Dunaliella also showed susceptibility of growth and respiration to SHAM. Glycerol retention was influenced by all inhibitors, while growth was inhibited demonstrably by SHAM in Dunaliella. Respiration in plants needs to be seen as a positive contribution to overall growth and not merely for burning away of the biomass.

Shape anisotropy of lipid molecules and voids

Biological polymers, viz., proteins, membranes and micelles exhibit structural discontinuities in terms of spaces unfilled by the polymeric phase, termed voids. These voids exhibit dynamics and lead to interesting properties which are experimentally demonstrable. In the specific case of phospholipid membranes, numerical simulations on a two-dimensional model system showed that voids are induced primarily due to the shape anisotropy in binary mixtures of interacting disks. The results offer a minimal description required to explain the unusually large permeation seen in liposomes made up of specific lipid mixtures (Mathai & Sitaramam, 1994). The results are of wider interest, voids being ubiquitous in biopolymers.

What does a common channel for electrolytes and non-electrolytes in the sperm mean?

Cell volume is central to osmoregulation in intact cells. Bovine spermatozoa, as also other mammalian spermatozoa, exhibit a very rapid regulatory volume decrease (RVD) when exposed to hypotonic saline media. This response, fastest known in animal cells, is mediated by a putative potassium channel which the pharmacological properties of a conventional channel and yet admits both electrolytes and non-electrolytes. The evolutionary basis and functional role of this conserved quinine-sensitive channel in mammalian sperm could offer hitherto unexplored facets of the link(s) between ecology and reproduction.

The positive role of voids in the plasma membrane in growth and energetics of Escherichia coli

Bacterial respiration, endogenous as well as induced respiration by glucose, lactose and glycine betaine, was found to be sensitive to external solute concentration. Permeability of hydrogen peroxide, a non-electrolyte of molecular size between water and urea, through the bacterial membranes changed directly with the rate of respiration (an activity residing in the bacterial plasma membrane) in E. coli and the enhanced permeability and respiratory activity were highly correlated. Hydrogen peroxide permeability and induction of voids (spaces in the matrix of the bilayer into which hydrophobic fluorescent probes partition, which in turn were used to assess the modulation of these cavities) were shown to be a direct and excellent measure of leak conductance. Fluorescence intensity and anisotropy of the extrinsic fluorescent probes (incorporated by growing bacteria in their presence) decreased with increased respiration in bacteria, consistent with lowered molecular restriction and enhanced hydration in the membrane phase for these probes as seen in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers due to phase transition. The physical basis of osmotic phenomena, as a relevant (thermodynamic) volume, could relate to water exchange or compression, depending on the osmotic domain. In the domain of compression in bacteria, i.e. well above the isotonic range, the computed activation volume was consistent with voids in the membrane. This study emphasises a major role of leak conductance in bacterial physiology and growth.

Assessment of molecular sieving across bacterial outer membrane of Pseudomonas

The role of the permeability barrier of the outer membrane of Pseudomonas was re-evaluated based on the physical theory of molecular sieving in view of its intrinsic antibiotic resistance. We developed a set of analytical procedures based on parametric and non-parametric statistical tests to evaluate, validate and adopt the better among a set of competing non-linear models of diffusion. The molecular mass dependence of uptake of non-electrolytes in bacteria yielded a quantitative measure to distinguish between sieving mechanisms and specific uptake/efflux mechanisms. The experimental data, supported by the physical model of DEAE-Sephadex and various analytical models and extensive simulation of the errors, both in measurement and models, yielded evidence consistent with the relaxation of the outer membrane matrix barrier in Pseudomonas.

Hydrogen peroxide permeation across liposomal membranes: a novel method to assess structural flaws in liposomes

Hydrogen peroxide permeation across large multilamellar vesicles of defined and complex lipid composition was shown to obey precise kinetic relationships for the activity of the occluded catalase. Careful assay conditions precluded simultaneous peroxidative damage to the lipids. The kinetic data was consistent with a barrier role for the bilayer for hydrogen peroxide permeation. More interestingly, hydrogen peroxide permeation across liposomes of complex lipid mixtures exhibited osmotic inhibition of permeation of hydrogen peroxide. On the other hand, purified egg lecithin vesicles did not exhibit any effect of external osmolality on hydrogen peroxide permeation in an experimentally defined non-lytic zone of external osmolarity. These results argue in favour of a heterogeneous, heteroporous structure of bilayers with complex lipid composition.

Variable porosity of the mitochondrial inner membrane induced by energization

The empirically observed relationship between the activity of membrane-bound enzyme systems and transporters and the external osmotic pressure offered a direct method to assess the reflection coefficients to polyols in respiring mitochondria. These osmotically modulated reaction rates varied with the molecular mass of the external polyol similar to volume and solute fluxes across dialysis membranes. The equivalent pore radii of mitochondria were shown to increase with respiration (and temperature) and decrease on addition of the uncoupler, 2,4-dinitrophenol. The magnitude of the induced porosity in the inner membrane was large enough to render the chemiosmotic mechanism inoperable in well-coupled rat liver mitochondria.

Differential effects of osmotic pressure on mitochondrial respiratory chain and indices of oxidative phosphorylation

Oxidative phosphorylation was critically evaluated in terms of activities which are sensitive and insensitive to variations in external osmotic pressure in mitochondria. Integrity of mitochondria was determined in terms of a variety of parameters, including the latency of the occluded enzymes, by careful titrations as a function of external osmotic pressure as well as detergent concentrations. The evidence indicated that the rate-limiting step in respiratory states 2 and 4 would be osmotically insensitive, as opposed to the osmotically sensitive respiration of states 1 and 3 and uncoupler-stimulated respiration with glutamate + malate and succinate. Cytochrome oxidase activity in mitochondria as well as in purified reconstituted systems exhibited osmotic insensitivity but marked sensitivity to ionic strength, offering an interesting model to study the osmotically insensitive respiration. Cytochrome oxidase activity led to permeation of mannitol across the mitochondrial inner membrane. Stimulation of cytochrome oxidase activity by uncouplers did not require an intact membrane.