Variable stoichiometry of proton pumping by the mitochondrial respiratory chain

The proton/oxygen stoichiometry and the mechanism of the proton pumping respiratory complexes in the mitochondrial respiratory chain have been central issues in bioenergetics for several years. Recently, a number of disagreements about stoichiometry have been resolved, and H+/O ratios of 6 (refs 1-3) or perhaps 8 (refs 4 and 5) for succinate oxidation are now accepted. Suggestions that the stoichiometry in mitochondria is intrinsically variable ('slip' in the pumps) have been made but the evidence has been neither strong nor direct. We now show by direct measurement in steady-state conditions that the H+/O ratio (measured as the charge/O ratio) for isolated mitochondria respiring on succinate varies from 6 at low membrane potential to 2.5-3 at membrane potentials of about 170 mV.