Ok, having read Dr Kell's comments and now having read most of the
references (I can't seem to get the Bacterial Energy Transduction ref) I
have a few questions;
My project involves the measuring of oxygen consumption and lactate
production in a cell suspension to estimate total ATP production.
The work I quoted in my last post (Brand,et al (1993) Biochem. J.
291:739-748) and other communications between our lab and the Brand lab
have implied that this approach is at best approximate and at worst,
completely wrong.
Does Dr Kell's hypothesis render Brands work irrelevant in the
determining of ATP production from O2 consumption (by making the proton
leak, if it is there, an unimportant issue) or does it only make things
worse for those of us trying to determine ATP production from O2
consumption.
Or to put it differently. Is there any hope of an exact and constant
stoichiometry between electrons transported (or at least FADH2 and NADH
oxidised) and ATP produced. ANd if there is a constant stoichiometry
does anybody know what it is, or how it could be measured in a given
system (easily).
Or am I really completey without hope in this respect? Please help :-)
----
Cameron Neylon, Honours, Dept of Biochemistry,
University of Western Australia
(09) 368-2717 or more regularly camn at uniwa.uwa.edu.au
Biochemistry: noun, The art of sitting, late at night, transferring
ridiculously small volumes of liquid with one hand and
attempting to hold onto one's sanity with the other.
