The Enigma of the Respiratory Chain Supercomplex

Publication date: 4 April 2017
Source:Cell Metabolism, Volume 25, Issue 4
Author(s): Dusanka Milenkovic, James N. Blaza, Nils-Göran Larsson, Judy Hirst
Respiratory chain dysfunction plays an important role in human disease and aging. It is now well established that the individual respiratory complexes can be organized into supercomplexes, and structures for these macromolecular assemblies, determined by electron cryo-microscopy, have been described recently. Nevertheless, the reason why supercomplexes exist remains an enigma. The widely held view that they enhance catalysis by channeling substrates is challenged by both structural and biophysical information. Here, we evaluate and discuss data and hypotheses on the structures, roles, and assembly of respiratory-chain supercomplexes and propose a future research agenda to address unanswered questions.

Teaser

Milenkovic et al. review the present understanding of the structure, function, and assembly of mitochondrial respiratory chain supercomplexes. Only weak molecular interactions between the individual respiratory chain complexes hold supercomplexes together and their function remains enigmatic because structural data do not support a role in substrate channeling during electron transport.


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