pubmed:abstractText |
Following the appearance of two papers in this journal commenting on the logic of the application of uncoupler-inhibitor titrations as a means of discriminating between 'delocalized' and 'localized' chemiosmotic mechanisms [(1984) FEBS Lett. 176,79-82; (1985) FEBS Lett. 186, 8-10], and in contrast with the arguments presented there and elsewhere, we show that in a linear model the increase in delta mu H which accompanies partial inhibition of the ATPases always leads to a relatively higher decrease of the rate of ATP synthesis by a given concentration of uncoupler in the presence of an ATPase inhibitor than in its absence. This is due to the fact that the same titre of uncoupler leads to a higher dissipative H+ flow in the presence of inhibitor, since the driving force delta mu H is higher.
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