The action of the sesquiterpenic benzoquinone, perezone, on electron transport in biological membranes

Perezone (2-(1,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-p-benzoquinone) is a sesquiterpenic benzoquinone isolated from roots of plants of the genus Perezia. It exhibits oxido-reduction characteristics which suggest that the compound can be used for studies of the electron transfer chain of rat liver mitochondria. Perezone at 50 microM inhibits mitochondrial electron transport through a process which differs from that of rotenone, amytal, and Antimycin A. The inhibition is temperature dependent; at 35 degrees C it fails to inhibit valinomycin-induced mitochondrial respiration, but at 20 degrees C it inhibits respiration by 80-90%. Perezone is an electron-donor and electron-acceptor compound that behaves similarly to naphtoquinone. It mediates electron transport from a reaction center preparation isolated from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides and added cytochrome c. The low respiration of rat liver mitochondria depleted of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ) is increased by perezone. The electron transport activity of perezone was also demonstrated with CoQ-deficient yeast mutant E3-24.