Medical Definition of Chemiosmotic hypothesis
1.
A theoretical mechanism (proposed by Mitchell) to explain energy transduction in the mitochondrion. As a general mechanism it is the coupling of one enzyme catalysed reaction to another using the transmembrane flow of an intermediate species. For example Cytochrome oxidase pumps protons across the mitochondrial inner membrane and ATP synthesis is driven by re entry of protons through the ATP synthesising protein complex. The alternative model is production of a chemical intermediate species, but no compound capable of coupling these reactions has ever been identified.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Chemiosmotic Hypothesis
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