Abstract
Previous reports have demonstrated that naphthalene inhibits oxygen consumption in Daphnia magna tissue culture cells, and intact mitochondria and submitochondrial particles. These studies were extended to algal mitochondrial respiration as well as photosynthetic activity. The authors were able to demonstrate the specific site of apparent respiratory inhibition to be coenzyme Q (ubiquinone, UQ) and later to demonstrate the molecular basis of this inhibition at ubiquinone. The authors previously could not demonstrate an effect of naphthalene on cytochrome oxidase activity. However, the observation that naphthalene can stimulate respiration in algae prompted the reinvestigation of the effect of naphthalene on the kinetics of cytochrome oxidase. Cytochrome oxidase is a multi-subunit membranous protein responsible for the oxidation of cytochrome c and the reduction of molecular oxygen to water. Because of the complicated nature and mechanism of this enzyme, the potential exists for multiple and possibly opposite effects of naphthalene on its function.
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