Direct evidence for the presence of a rotenone‐resistant NADH dehydrogenase on the inner surface of the inner membrane of plant mitochondria

Abstract

Submitochondrial particles (SMP) were produced from Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) mitochondria by sonication and differential centrifugation. The SMP were about 50% inside‐out as measured by the access of reduced cytochrome c to cytochrome c oxidase. Uncoupled NADH oxidation (1 mM NADH) by the SMP was 120 nmol O2 min−1mg−1, which was reduced to 98 nmol O2 min−1 (mg mitochondrial protein)−1 in the presence of EGTA. In contrast, the oxidation of NADH by intact mitochondria was completely inhibited by EGTA (from 182 to 14 nmol O2 min−1mg−1). The EGTA‐resistant NADH oxidation by the SMP is ascribed to the NADH dehydrogenase(s) on the inside of the inner membrane and exposed to the medium in the inside‐out SMP. In the presence of EGTA it could be shown that two NADH dehydrogenase activities were present in the SMP. One had an apparent Km of 7 μM for NADH, a Vmax of 80 nmol NADH min−1mg−1, and was rotenone‐sensitive. This dehydrogenase is equivalent to the mammalian Complex I NADH dehydrogenase. The other dehydrogenase, which was rotenone‐resistant, had a Km of 80 μM and a Vmax of 131 nmol NADH min−1mg−1; it is probably responsible for the rotenone‐resistant oxidation of organic acids often observed in plant mitochondria. The redox poise of the pyridine nucleotides had only a small effect on the relative rates of the two internal dehydrogenases. Electron flow through these dehydrogenases appears, therefore, to be regulated mainly by the concentration of NADH in the matrix of the mitochondria.