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Volume 5, Issue 3(Suppl) Biochem Anal Biochem 2016
ISSN: 2161-1009, Biochem an open access journal
Page 43
Notes:
Biochemistry 2016
October 10-12, 2016
conferenceseries.com
Biochemistry
October 10-12, 2016 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
International Conference on
Homeothermic control based on pre-equilibrium reaction in thermogenic skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus
renifolius
Yui Umekawa and Kikukatsu Ito
Iwate University, Japan
Temperature is one of the most important requirements for all living organisms. To survive in severe environments in which
temperature changes continuously, some animals have gained the ability to maintain their temperature during the evolutionary
process, called homeothermy, which is performed by a complex mechanism involving thermal receptors throughout the body and
integration in the hypothalamus that controls shivering and non-shivering thermogenesis. Interestingly, flowers of some plants show
a similar homeothermic behavior by inversely controlled respiration to temperature. To clarify the thermoregulatory mechanism
in thermogenic plants, we investigated the temperature response of respiration in vivo using modified Arrhenius model using
homeothermic spadices of skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus renifolius). Our results clearly showed that overall thermodynamic activation
energy exhibits a negative value in the temperature range in which respiration control occurs. Our results suggest that respiratory
control in this plant is achieved by a pre-equilibrium chemical reaction in response to temperature. Moreover, citrate-driven
respiration analysis using isolated mitochondria from thermogenic spadices further suggests that chemically endothermic reactions,
such as NADPH production catalyzed by mitochondrial isocitrate dehydrogenase are involved in our proposed pre-equilibrium
reaction. A law of chemical equilibrium known as Le Chatelier’s principle may govern the homeothermic control in skunk cabbage.
Biography
Yui Umekawa is currently pursuing PhD in Biochemistry, Bioenergetics, Molecular Biology at the United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Iwate University, Japan.
Yui Umekawa et al., Biochem Anal Biochem 2016, 5:3(Suppl)