Forster mechanism of electron-driven proton pump

Abstract

We examine a simple model of proton pumping through the inner membrane of mitochondria in the living cell. We demonstrate that the pumping process can be described using approaches of condensed matter physics. In the framework of this model, we show that the resonant Förster-type energy exchange due to electron-proton Coulomb interaction can provide an unidirectional flow of protons against an electrochemical proton gradient, thereby accomplishing proton pumping. The dependence of this effect on temperature as well as electron and proton voltage build-ups are obtained taking into account electrostatic forces and noise in the environment. We find that the proton pump works with maximum efficiency in the range of temperatures and transmembrane electrochemical potentials which correspond to the parameters of living cells.

References in corpus (4)

• The Anderson Model out of Equilibrium: Non-Crossing-Approximation Approach to Transport through a Quantum Dot
• Time-Dependent Transport through a Mesoscopic Structure
• Spin-boson models for quantum decoherence of electronic excitations of biomolecules and quantum dots in a solvent
• Spin-Forster transfer in optically excited quantum dots

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Dimerization-assisted energy transport in light-harvesting complexes
• Modelling light-driven proton pumps in artificial photosynthetic reaction centers
• Kinetics of proton pumping in cytochrome c oxidase
• Artificial photosynthetic reaction centers coupled to light-harvesting antennas
• Electrostatic models of electron-driven proton transfer across a lipid membrane
• Diffusion-controlled generation of a proton-motive force across a biomembrane
• Proton transport and torque generation in rotary biomotors
• Shuttle-mediated proton pumping across the inner mitochondrial membrane