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Calculating temperature range

We try to establish the range of temperatures within we expect that thermogenine will keep the culture at. The minimum value of temperature is, evidently, the corresponding to the culture conditions. The maximal quote was determined by supposing that the proton motrive force was used solely in heat production mediated by thermogenine. The following calculations were made taking into account this assumption.

We used the published rate (Milakovik et al 2005) of ATP produced per second per mitochondria to calculate the energy produce per proton dissipated through the thermogenine per second per mitochondria.

17.5 nmol/min = 2.92 *10-10 mol/s = 1.76*1014 ATP particles/s

If ATP synthase needs four protons to produce one molecule of ATP then we can calculate easily the proton flow through complex V.

7.03*1014 p+/s

The free energy associated to a single proton pass through the ATP synthase is 20 Kj/mol, just by multiplying.

3.32* 1023 Kj/p+

Thus the energy flow is calculated by multiplying both figures and adjusting the result to the proper units:

2.33*10-5 J/s

Knowing the number of mitochondria per cell, the optical density of the culture and the amount of medium, we can effortlessly establish the maximum temperature with the help of the figure calculated above.

References

Mitochondrial Respiration and ATP Production Are Significantly Impaired in Striatal Cells Expressing Mutant Huntingtin*

Tamara Milakovic and Gail V. W. Johnson