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Architecture of bacterial respiratory chains

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 19, pages 319–330 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Bacteria power their energy metabolism using membrane-bound respiratory enzymes that capture chemical energy and transduce it by pumping protons or Na+ ions across their cell membranes. Recent breakthroughs in molecular bioenergetics have elucidated the architecture and function of many bacterial respiratory enzymes, although key mechanistic principles remain debated. In this Review, we present an overview of the structure, function and bioenergetic principles of modular bacterial respiratory chains and discuss their differences from the eukaryotic counterparts. We also discuss bacterial supercomplexes, which provide central energy transduction systems in several bacteria, including important pathogens, and which could open up possible avenues for treatment of disease.

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Fig. 1: Examples of bacterial respiratory chains.
Fig. 2: Structure and function of initial electron acceptors in bacterial respiratory chains.
Fig. 3: The bacterial complex III and its Q-cycle mechanism.
Fig. 4: Bacterial terminal respiratory oxidases.
Fig. 5: Bacterial respiratory supercomplexes.

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Acknowledgements

V.R.I.K. acknowledges insightful discussion with P. Brzezinski, as well as all members of the Kaila laboratory. This work was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program/grant agreement 715311, and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (V.R.I.K.). M.W. acknowledges a grant from the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation. This work was also supported by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC 2020/1-38) at PDC Center for High Performance Computing, partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through grant agreement no. 2016-07213.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ville R. I. Kaila

  2. Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Mårten Wikström

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  1. Ville R. I. Kaila
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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Correspondence to Ville R. I. Kaila.

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Glossary

Zwitterionic lipids

Lipid molecules that carry both negative and positive electric point charges.

Desolvation (Born) free energy

The electrostatic component of Gibbs free energy arising from ion solvation.

Grotthuss-type hopping process

An excess proton that diffuses within a hydrogen-bonded network of residues via the concerted formation and breaking of covalent bonds between donor and acceptor pairs, followed by reorientation of the hydrogen-bonded network. Named after C. J. D. T. von Grotthuss, who proposed the mechanism in 1806.

Rieske Fe–S protein

The Rieske Fe-S protein is the 2Fe–2S centre of complex III and is named after its discoverer, John S. Rieske.

Mitchellian redox-loop mechanism

The ‘redox loop’ is the original proton translocation principle in Peter Mitchell’s chemiosmotic theory, which involves direct electron transfer from the P-side to the N-side and coupled proton release and uptake reactions at respective sides of the membrane.

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Kaila, V.R.I., Wikström, M. Architecture of bacterial respiratory chains. Nat Rev Microbiol 19, 319–330 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-00486-4

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