Uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. 2. Alternative mechanisms: intrinsic uncoupling or decoupling?

The mechanism of uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation by carbonyl cyanide p-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone (FCCP), oleic acid, and chloroform is further investigated by measuring in the presence of a certain concentration of each type of uncoupler (i) the mitochondrial P/O and respiratory control ratios upon progressive inhibition of the redox pumps and (ii) delta mu H and the rate of either electron transfer or adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis in static head upon progressive inhibition of either the redox or the adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) proton pumps. Chloroform exhibits in all the experiments a behavior very different from that of FCCP and oleic acid. For example, upon addition of antimycin to chloroform-supplemented mitochondria, the respiratory control ratio remains unchanged and the P/O ratio slightly increases (in a certain range of inhibition) instead of decreasing as expected for an increased membrane conductance (and as indeed measured in the presence of either FCCP or oleic acid). From the kinetic model of chemiosmotic free energy coupling described by Pietrobon and Caplan [Pietrobon, D., & Caplan, S.R. (1986) Biochemistry 25, 7690-7696] all the results can be simulated by making the assumptions that (i) chloroform acts specifically at the level of the proton pumps and intrinsically uncouples electron transfer and ATP hydrolysis/synthesis from proton translocation and (ii) FCCP and oleic acid have a mixed behavior and act both as protonophores and as intrinsic uncouplers of the redox pumps (but not of the ATPases). The consistency of the results with the alternative hypothesis that the three agents interfere either with localized energy coupling sites or with a direct interaction between proton pumps is discussed.