Xu C1, Zhang J, Mihai DM, Washington I. (J Cell Sci. 2014 Jan 15;127(Pt 2):388-99. doi: 10.1242/jcs.134262. Epub 2013 Nov 6.) Columbia U. Medical Center, NY, NY (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov); Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly via Carla Golden (carlagoldenwellness.com)
Light-harvesting chlorophyll pigments enable mammalian mitochondria to capture photonic energy and produce ATP.
ABSTRACT
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| Human/animal cells power miracles. |
Sunlight
is the most abundant energy source on this planet. However, the ability
to convert sunlight into biological energy in the form of
adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) is thought to be limited to
chlorophyll-containing chloroplasts in photosynthetic organisms. Here we
show that mammalian mitochondria can also capture light and synthesize
ATP when mixed with a light-capturing metabolite of chlorophyll.
.
The
same metabolite fed to the worm Caenorhabditis elegans leads to increase
in ATP synthesis upon light exposure, along with an increase in life
span. We further demonstrate the same potential to convert light into
energy exists in mammals, as chlorophyll metabolites accumulate in mice,
rats and swine when fed a chlorophyll-rich diet.
.
Results suggest
chlorophyll type molecules modulate mitochondrial ATP by catalyzing the
reduction of coenzyme Q, a slow step in mitochondrial ATP synthesis. We
propose that through consumption of plant chlorophyll pigments, animals,
too, are able to derive energy directly from sunlight.
INTRODUCTION
Determining how organisms
obtain energy from the environment is fundamental to our understanding
of life. In nearly all organisms, energy is stored and transported as
adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP).
In animals, the vast majority of ATP is
synthesized in the mitochondria through respiration, a catabolic
process. However, plants have co-evolved endosymbiotically to produce
chloroplasts, which synthesize light-absorbing chlorophyll molecules
that can capture light to use as energy for ATP synthesis.
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| Light (photons) is the substrate of matter. |
Many animals
consume this light-absorbing chlorophyll through their diet. Inside the
body, chlorophyll is converted into a variety of metabolites (Ferruzzi and Blakeslee, 2007; Ma and Dolphin, 1999)
that retain the ability to absorb light in the visible spectrum at
wavelengths that can penetrate into animal tissues.
We sought to
elucidate the consequences of light absorption by these potential
dietary metabolites. We show that dietary metabolites of chlorophyll can
enter the circulation, are present in tissues, and can be enriched in
the mitochondria.
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| The bottom line? Maybe we are what we eat. |
When incubated with a light-capturing metabolite of
chlorophyll, isolated mammalian mitochondria and animal-derived tissues,
have higher concentrations of ATP when exposed to light, compared with
animal tissues not mixed with the metabolite.
We demonstrate that the
same metabolite increases ATP concentrations and extends the median
life span of Caenorhabditis elegans, upon light exposure --
supporting the hypothesis that photonic energy capture through
dietary-derived metabolites may be an important means of energy
regulation in animals.
The presented data are consistent with the
hypothesis that metabolites of dietary chlorophyll modulate
mitochondrial ATP stores by catalyzing the reduction of coenzyme Q.
These findings have implications for our understanding of aging, normal
cell function, and life on earth.
RESULTS
Light-driven ATP synthesis in isolated mammalian mitochondria
To demonstrate that dietary chlorophyll metabolites can
modulate ATP levels, we examined the effects of the chlorophyll
metabolite pyropheophorbide-a (P-a) on ATP synthesis in isolated mouse
liver mitochondria in the presence of red light... More
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