The ionic redistributions were in agreement with DNA Damage inhibitor subsequent measurements, conducted in collaboration with a postdoc from Germany (Gottfried Wagner), including agreement with respect to a small chloride influx (Chow Capmatinib molecular weight et al. 1976). However, the large chloride influx observed in a Tris buffer (Hind et al. 1974) puzzled us; to explain it quantitatively, our model assumed a certain concentration of protonated Tris+ cations sequestered in the thylakoid lumen because of the light-induced ΔpH, the Tris+ cations acting like Donnan fixed charges (Chow et al. 1976). Electron transport, proton translocation and photophosphorylation were to occupy Alex’s attention

for the rest of career. Thus, he attempted to estimate the proton motive force (PMF) in thylakoids (Hope et al. 1982a), making the first observations of the effects of ionophores on the PMF and photophosphorylation concurrently (Hope et al. 1982b). He further refined the estimation of the trans-thylakoid ΔpH by correcting for the binding of the amine probe used (Hope and Matthews 1985). Applying the correction to the estimates of ΔpH, he then compared ΔG ATP (the ‘phosphorylation potential’) with ΔG H+ (the

free energy difference between protons in the aqueous bulk phases inside and outside). The results could not be reconciled with a simple, selleck chemical bulk-phase chemiosmotic relationship unless the electric potential difference was up to +155 mV (Hope et al. 1985), an unreasonably high value for thylakoids. The authors concluded that the PMF may not be poised at all times in relation to the phosphorylation potential as required by the macrochemiosmotic concept, and that the results did not rule out the microchemiosmotic

concept involving localized protons or its variations. Their conclusion is consistent with the observation that the rate of ATP synthesis declined in an abrupt fashion on cessation of illumination with or without valinomycin, even though the ΔpH declined with Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II much more slowly (Chow et al. 1978). Proton deposition in the lumen was resolved into three phases (Hope and Matthews 1984): a fast phase (<1 ms, not resolved) which is usually attributed to protons from oxidation of water; an intermediate phase (ca. 3 ms), usually attributed to the oxidation of plastoquinonol, which showed a damped, binary periodicity very like that for proton uptake (Hope and Matthews 1983); and a slow phase (70–90 ms) which may have its origin near PS II. The intermediate phase of proton deposition led Alex to study the kinetics of electron and proton transfers around the cytochrome (cyt) b/f complex where oxidation of plastoquinonol occurs: modelling the constraints on Q-cycle activity (Hope and Matthews 1988); measuring the rate of cyt b-563 reduction (Hope et al. 1989); and kinetically resolving the proton uptake associated with turnover of the quinone-reduction site (Hope and Rich 1989).