Dr. Carola Hunte
Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysics
Frankfurt, Germany

Monday, March 6, 2006
3:00 pm (CT)
1215A Beckman Institute

Abstract

The cytochrome bc1 complex is a fundamental component of the energy conversion machinery of respiratory and photosynthetic electron transfer chains. This membrane- embedded enzyme couples the electron transfer from ubiquinol to cytochrome c with the translocation of protons across the bilayer. Its molecular mechanism despite considerable progress in recent years, is not fully understood. The mitochondrial complex from yeast has been studied with a combined approach of X-ray crystallography, biochemical analysis, site-directed mutagenesis and spectroscopy. New data about substrate binding will be presented and implications for the mechanism will be discussed.