Nanomachines in the powerhouse of the cell

Scientists of the University of Freiburg and the University of Frankfurt have elucidated the architecture of the largest protein complex of the cellular respiratory chain.They discovered an unknown mechanism of energy conversion in this molecular complex. The mechanism is required to utilize the energy contained in food. After ten years of research work, the x-ray crystallographic analysis of the huge and most complicated protein complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain was successful. The complex contains more than 40 different proteins, marks the entry to cellular respiration and is thus also called mitochondrial complex I. The results are published in the current online-edition of the journal "Science". A detailed understanding of the function of complex I is of special medical interest. Dysfunction of the complex is implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson´s disease or Alzheimer´s disease, and also with the physiological processes of biological aging, in general. The work of Prof. Carola Hunte of the Freiburg Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Freiburg excellence centre BIOSS (Centre for Biological Signalling Studies) in cooperation with Prof. Ulrich Brandt, Professor for Molecular Bioenergetics and member of the excellence centre "Macromolecular Complexes" and Dr. Volker Zickermann of his research group is a major step forward to this understanding.