Enzyme Mechanism
The exact mechanism for the reduction is unknown, although there are two hypothesized pathways. The first pathway is the transferral of electrons from one electron reduced ETF one at a time to the lower potential FAD center. One electron is transferred from the reduced FAD to the iron cluster, resulting in a two electron reduced state with one electron each on the FAD and cluster domains. Then, the bound ubiquinone is reduced to ubiquinol, at least transiently forming the singly reduced semiubiquinone. The second pathway involves the donation of electrons from ETF to the iron cluster, followed by internal transitions between the two electron centers. After equilibration, the rest of the pathway follows as above.
Read more about this topic: Electron-transferring-flavoprotein Dehydrogenase
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