Mine eyes have seen the glory of respiratory chains
In every mitochondrion, intrinsic to membranes
Functionally organized in complex subdomains
Where electrons flow along,
Glory, glory respiration! (three times)
Where electrons flow along.
Each chain is a mosaic of Complexes I to IV
Embedded in the lipid (which is what the lipid’s for)
But that is not sufficient, there are two components more
Where electrons, etc.
The first is a small cytochrome that rolls around the place
That’s easily extractable from the cytoplasmic face
That restores respiration if you just add back a trace,
Where electrons, etc.
The other’s a benzoquinone that is ubiquitous,
It floats around the lipid phase with hardly any fuss,
For mobile pooling function it’s become synonymous
Where electrons, etc.
NADH to UQ’s the job of Complex I
It contains a single flavin&endash;(and FMN is the one)
And all that non-heme iron can’t just be there for fun
Where electrons, etc.
Succinate is oxidized by way of Complex II,
It starts off with FAD and it reduces Q,
And just to make it complex, it’s got non-heme iron too,
Where electrons, etc.
From UQ through to cyto. c requires Complex III,
It’s got c1 and iron too and two species of b,
There’s an antimycin-binding site, core-proteins two or three,
Where electrons, etc.
Finally to Complex IV where oxygen’s reduced,
Two coppers, a and a3 (which in yeast can be induced)
Fine end to the finest chain the Nature has produced,
Where electrons, etc.