Metabolic control analysis and threshold effect in oxidative phosphorylation: implications for mitochondrial pathologies

We have shown that the Metabolic Control Analysis (MCA) can explain the threshold effect observed in the expression of mitochondrial diseases. As a matter of fact, the effect of a specific inhibitor on the flux of O2 consumption mimics a defect in a step of oxidative phosphorylation. The observed threshold is correlated to the value of the control coefficient of the inhibited step. For this reason, we have studied the repartition of the control coefficients of different steps in oxidative phosphorylation on various tissues (liver, kidney, brain, skeletal muscle and heart). We discuss the results in terms of metabolic control theory and provide a possible explanation for the heterogeneous phenotype of those pathologies. We present the double threshold hypothesis of both a threshold in the energy demand of a tissue and in the energy supply by oxidative phosphorylation.