Bioenergetics (Springer, 2008).pdf

Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation

Dietmar Richter

Center for Molecular Neurobiology

University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)

University of Hamburg

Martinistrasse 52

20246 Hamburg

Germany

richter@uke.uni-hamburg.de

Henri Tiedge

The Robert F. Furchgott Center for Neural and Behavioral Science

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

Department of Neurology

SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn

Brooklyn, New York 11203

USA

htiedge@downstate.edu

Series Editors

D. Richter, H. Tiedge

Günter Schäfer, Harvey S. Penefsky (Eds.)

Bioenergetics

Energy Conservation and Conversion

123

Günter Schäfer

Institute of Biochemistry

University of Lübeck

Ratzeburger Allee 160

23538 Lübeck

Germany

ggw.schaefer@web.de

Harvey S. Penefsky

International Center for Public Health

Public Health Research Institute

225 Warren Street

Newark, NJ 07103

USA

penefshs@umdnj.edu

ISSN 0080-1844

ISBN-13 978-3-540-78621-4 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York

DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-78622-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008922553

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Introduction

The fermentation of sugar by cell-free yeast extracts was demonstrated more

than a century ago by E. Buchner (Nobel Prize 1907). Buchner’s observations

put an end to previous animistic theories regarding cellular life. It became clear

that metabolism and all cellular functions should be accessible to explication in

chemical terms. Equally important for an understanding of living systems was

the concept, explained in physical terms, that all living things could be consid-

ered as energy converters [E. Schrödinger (Nobel Prize 1933)] which generate

complexity at the expense of an increase in entropy in their environment.

Bioenergetics was established as an essential branch of the biochemical

sciences by the investigations into the chemistry of photosynthesis in iso-

lated plant organelles [O. Warburg (Nobel Prize 1931)] and by the discovery

that mitochondria were the morphological equivalent that catalyzed cellular

respiration. The ﬁeld of bioenergetics also encompasses a large variety of addi-

tional processes such as the molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction, the

structure and driving mechanisms of microbial ﬂagellar motors, the energetics

of solute transport, the extrusion of macromolecules across membranes, the

transformation of quanta of light into visual information and the maintenance

of complex synaptic communications. There are many other examples which,

in most cases, may perform secondary energy transformations, utilizing en-

ergy stored either in the cellular ATP pool or in electrochemical membrane

potentials.

The recognition that primary energy conservation can indeed occur via

formation of electrochemical potential gradients formed by small ions, the

chemiosmotic mechanism, has fundamentally revolutionized the understand-

ing of these processes [P. Mitchell (Nobel Prize 1978)]. Oxygenic photosynthe-

sis in chloroplasts from green plants and algae on the one hand, and cellular

respiration in mitochondria or aerobic bacteria on the other, are the best-

known processes of that type. The general importance of electrochemical

potential gradients well deserves the dedication of a special volume within

this series of Results and Problems of Cell Differentiation. The further im-

portance of ion gradients is illustrated by the fact that they may be subject

to defects and diseases and may also be useful targets for herbicides and

drugs. The basic mechanistic principles of these molecular energy converters

may provide models for the design of bionic devices of importance to the

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