Inside View of a Giant Proton Pump

摘要

Aerobic cells meet their energy demands predominantly by synthesizing ATP through oxidative phosphorylation. In this process hydrogen extracted from foodstuffs is transferred to a chain of redox enzymes to eventually reduce molecular oxygen to water. In eukaryotes this takes place in the mitochondria, the cellular "power plants", which in a resting human being, turnover the equivalent of about 3000 litres of H2 per day.