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School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

Katherine Richardson

PhD student

Email: k.h.richardson@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Project title: Functional Comparison of Quinone Reducing Proton Pumps

Summary: Establishing an electrochemical proton gradient is required for the cellular production of ATP. Photosynthesis and respiration both exploit an electron transport chain (ETC) to couple the transfer of electrons via redox centres, with the pumping of protons across a membrane. Both electron transport chains utilize quinones as redox carriers to selectively direct electrons through the large protein complexes involved. The quinone/quinol pool is essential to electron partitioning and therefore regulation of the ETC. Two complexes are known to couple proton pumping with quinone reduction; complex I in respiration and NDH-1 in photosynthesis.There are many structural similarities between these two protein complexes, however the molecular mechanism of both is poorly understood. The aim of this project is to investigate and compare the mechanism and regulation of these two molecular machines. 

Supervisors

Department

  • Cell and Molecular Biology

Research

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