Complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is central to energy metabolism in mammalian mitochondria. It couples NADH oxidation by ubiquinone to proton transport across the energy-conserving inner membrane, catalyzing respiration and driving ATP synthesis. In the absence of substrates, active complex I gradually enters a pronounced resting or deactive state. The active-deactive transition occurs during ischemia and is crucial for controlling how respiration recovers upon reperfusion. Here, we set a highly active preparation of Bos taurus complex I into the biochemically defined deactive state, and used single-particle electron cryomicroscopy to determine its structure to 4.1 Å resolution. We show that the deactive state arises when critical structural elements that form the ubiquinone-binding site become disordered, and we propose reactivation is induced when substrate binding to the NADH-reduced enzyme templates their reordering. Our structure both rationalizes biochemical data on the deactive state and offers new insights into its physiological and cellular roles.
Organizational Affiliation:
MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, University of Cambridge, Wellcome Trust/MRC Building, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0XY, UK.
For questions/corrections to specific PDB entries, including citation updates: email deposit-help@mail.wwpdb.org
Thank you for providing your feedback! Someone will be in touch with you shortly. This window will automatically close in 5 seconds.
Apologies, our feedback server is currently unavailable and we are troubleshooting the issue. In the meantime, please copy and paste the below information into an email addressed to info@rcsb.org