title: Determination of oxidative phosphorylation complexes activities.
abstract: Mitochondria possess a genome that codes for proteins, in the same fashion as the nuclear genome. However, the small, circular mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecule has a reduced base pair content, for it can only code for 2 rRNA, 22 tRNA molecules, and 13 proteins, all of them part of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. As such, all of the other mitochondrial components derive from nuclear genome. This separation leads to a requirement for a well-tuned coordination between both genomes, in order to produce fully functional mitochondria. A vast number of pathologies have been demonstrated to involve, to some extent, alterations in mitochondrial function that, no doubt, can be caused by alterations to the respiratory chain activity. As such, several methods and techniques have been developed to assess both content and function of mitochondrial proteins, in order to help understand mitochondrial involvement on the pathogenesis of disease. In this chapter, we will address some of these methods, with the main focus being on isolated mitochondria.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: João S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Teodoro
authors.forename: Carlos M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Palmeira
authors.forename: Anabela P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Rolo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002458:Cell Fractionation; D019069:Cell Respiration; D002950:Citrate (si)-Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D045222:Electron Transport Chain Complex Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D057075:Enzyme Assays / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008930:Mitochondria, Liver / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D010085:Oxidative Phosphorylation; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D045222:Electron Transport Chain Complex Proteins; D002950:Citrate (si)-Synthase