Inhibitory Effects of Lower Aliphatic Alcohols on Electron Transport Phosphorylation Systems. 2. Secondary, Tertiary, and Di-alcohols.

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Abstract
A number of aliphatic alcohols with 4 and 5 carbon atoms have been tested on photophosphorylation in isolated spinach chloroplasts and chromatophores from the photo-synthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum as well as on respiration and phosphorylation in rat. Among the 4-carbon alcohols tested, namely 1-butanol, 2-butanol, isobutanol, tertiary butanol, and 1-4-butanediol, a strong inhibition of respiration and phosphorylation in mitochondria and of cyclic phosphorylation in chromatophores and chloroplasts was obtained with the primary and secondary alcohols. The tertiary alcohol and the di-ol had only slight effects in the same concentration range. The following 5-carbon alcohols were tested on the 3 phosphorylating systems: 1-pentanol, 2-pentanol, 3-pentanol, and 1,5-pentanediol. Of these 1-pentanol and 1,5-pentanediol were found to act as an uncoupling agent with both succinate and the NAD-linked substrates [beta]-hydroxybutyrate and glutamate. In contrast to other alcohols tested it had a weaker inhibitory effect on NAD-linked than on succinate-linked electron transport. To ascertain whether the alcohol group was essential for inhibitory effects of the alcohols on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, the hydrocarbon pentane was tested. With this compound no significant effect on mitochondrial respiration and phosphorylation was obtained in the concentration range employed.