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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

High-resolution Respirometry to Assess Mitochondrial Function in Permeabilized and Intact Cells
Published on: February 8, 2017
Control of plant mitochondrial respiration
C Affourtit1, K Krab, A L Moore
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK. c.affourtit@sussex.ac.uk
Abstract:
Plant mitochondria are characterised by the presence of both phosphorylating (cytochrome) and non-phosphorylating (alternative) respiratory pathways, the relative activities of which directly affect the efficiency of mitochondrial energy conservation. Different approaches to study the regulation of the partitioning of reducing equivalents between these routes are critically reviewed. Furthermore, an updated view is provided regarding the understanding of plant mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic control. We emphasise the extent to which kinetic modelling and 'top-down' metabolic control analysis improve the insight in phenomena related to plant mitochondrial respiration. This is illustrated with an example regarding the affinity of the plant alternative oxidase for oxygen.
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