Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

148 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter “6x9”

(3) There are two kinds of conformational cycles, active and passive,

depending on the chemical reactions being catalyzed.

(4) Enzyme X undergoes passive conformational cycles when catalyzing

a down-hill (or exergonic) chemical reaction (e.g., ATP hydrolysis)

without any input of free energy from outside. In contrast, enzyme Y

undergoes active conformational cycles when catalyzing an un-hill

(or endergonic) chemical reaction (e.g., ATP synthesis from ADP and

Pi) which requires storing mechanical energy in Y that is supplied by

the free energy released from an exergonic chemical reaction (e.g.,

oxidation of NADH) catalyzed by another enzyme Z. (For definitions

of active and passive conformation changes, see Section 3.3.7.)

(5) In other words, an exergonic chemical reaction can be catalyzed by a

single enzyme, but an endergonic chemical reaction cannot and

requires at least two enzymes, e.g., Y and Z, that can exchange

mechanical energy, called the conformon (see Section 3.4).

Thus, one succinct way of characterizing the fundamental difference

between the chemiosmotic and the conformon models (with or without

being tied to the Rochester–Noji–Helsinki mechanism proposed in

Figure 3.35) is that the chemiosmotic model lacks the dynamics of

coupled charge fluxes, while the conformon model is rooted in one such

Table 3.18 The nine types of charge-coupled processes in mitochondria, each

process consisting of a driver and a driven denoted as (driver → driven).

Electron (e–) Proton (H+) Phosphoron (j–)

Electron (e–) (e– → e–)

Reverse

electron flow

(e– → H+)

Proton pumping in

Complex IV

(e– → j–)

Oxphos

Proton (H+) (H+ → e–)

Proton-driven reverse

electron flow (?)

(H+ → H+)

∆pH-driven

rotation of F 0

(H+ → j–)

Racker–Stőeckenius

experiment [206]

Phosphoron

(j–)

(j–→ e–)

ATP-driven reverse

electron flow

(j– → H+)

ATP-driven proton

pump

(j– → j–)

Co-operativity in ATP

hydrolysis by F 1 (?)

Note: Most of the predicted coupled processes have well-established examples.

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