La succinate déshydrogénase (SDH) est à la fois une enzyme clé du cycle de Krebs oxydant le succinate en fumarate et le complexe II de la chaîne respiratoire mitochondriale impliqué dans le transfert des électrons et la réduction de l’ubiquinone. Des inhibiteurs de cette enzyme (SDHI) ont été développés ou sont en cours de développement comme antifongiques. Cette famille de fongicides est notamment utilisée pour lutter contre Botrytis cinerea, champignon phytopathogène responsable de la pourriture grise sur de nombreuses cultures dont la vigne. Des souches résistantes aux SDHI ont été isolées chez B. cinerea et d’autres champignons phytopathogènes. Chez ces isolats résistants, des mutations ont été identifiées dans les gènes codant la SDH. Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons étudié l’impact de mutations affectant la sous-unité B (SdhB) de la succinate déshydrogénase sur l’activité de l’enzyme, la biologie du champignon B. cinerea et la résistance aux inhibiteurs ciblant cette enzyme. Par mutagénèse dirigée du gène sdhB, nous avons obtenu des mutants dits « isogéniques » qui ont permis de confirmer l’implication de ces mutations dans la résistance aux différentes molécules SDHI. Par ailleurs, nos résultats montrent que les modifications de la sous-unité SdhB affectent l’affinité des SDHI pour la SDH et les niveaux d’inhibition de l’activité SDH par les molécules inhibitrices ; ce qui explique - in fine - les spectres de résistance des mutants aux SDHI. Actuellement, tous les mutants sont résistants au boscalid et les mutants les plus fréquemment retrouvés au vignoble, sdhBH272R/Y, sont sensibles au fluopyram. Les travaux réalisés sur les mutants sdhB montrent que les mutations étudiées ont également un impact sur l’activité de l’enzyme et sur le développement du champignon, conséquences dépendantes du résidu substitué et de la substitution. En particulier, les mutations sdhBH272L/R affectent fortement l’activité de l’enzyme et la fitness du champignon alors que le mutant sdhBH272Y est peu affecté. Enfin, l’analyse de populations de pourriture grise de différentes origines (région, plantes hôtes) par rapport à la résistance aux SDHI réalisée sur les années 2009/2010 montre que les mutants sdhBH272R/Y sont toujours les plus fréquents mais leurs fréquences varient en fonction des situations agronomiques. Notamment la fréquence du mutant sdhBH272R augmente avec la pression de sélection exercée par les fongicides. Ce mutant attire particulièrement notre attention du fait de sa relation non linéaire entre fitness et fréquence au champ. / Succinate dehydrogenase is both a key enzyme of the TCA cycle, oxidizing succinate into fumarate and complex II of the mitochondrial respiratory chain involved in electron transfer and ubiquinone reduction. Inhibitors of this enzyme (SDHIs) have been developed or are in the developmental process as fungicides. Actually, SDHIs are registered to deal with Botrytis cinerea, a phytopathogenic fungus responsible for grey mold on many crops including grapevine. Strains of B. cinerea and other pathogenic fungi have been isolated for their resistance to SDHI. They mainly harbor mutations in genes encoding SDH subunits. During this thesis, we studied the impact of mutations modifying subunit B of succinate dehydrogenase on enzyme activity, fungal biology and resistance to SDHIs. “Isogenic” mutants obtained through site-directed mutagenesis and homologous recombination allowed us to confirm the role of sdhB mutations in SDHIs resistance. Our results also show that the substitutions in the SdhB subunit impact respectively the affinity of SDHIs to SDH and the inhibition levels of SDH activity by inhibitors, which explain – in fine – the resistance spectra observed for the mutants. Up to now, all sdhB mutants are resistant to boscalid and the most frequent mutants observed in grapevines, sdhBH272R/Y, are susceptible to fluopyram. Studies on sdhB mutants reveal that the mutations also impact the enzymatic activity and the fungal development depending on the substitution. In particular, sdhBH272L/R mutations have the strongest impact on enzyme activity and the fitness of the fungus, whereas these parameters are almost not altered in the sdhBH272Y mutant. Finally, grey mold populations from different origins (country, plant host) were analyzed for their SDHI resistance pheno- and genotypes. Yet, the sdhBH272R/Y mutants were the most frequent, but these frequencies varied according to the agronomical situation. Interestingly, the frequencies of the sdhBH272R mutant seem to increase with the selective pressure exerted by fungicides. This mutant is of particular interest because of the absence of correlation between the fitness we measured and the frequencies we observed in natura.

Adaptation to chronic hypoxia induces endogenous cardioprotection and increases the heart resistance to ischemia/reperfusion injury. The heart mitochondria, which produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) in addition to ATP, play an important role in these processes. During ischemia/reperfusion, ROS are produced in excessive amounts and damage the cells. However, in lower concentrations, ROS are involved in the signalling pathway of cardioprotection induced by adaptation to chronic hypoxia. In the heart, two mitochondrial subpopulations have been observed, subsarcolemmal mitochondria (SSM) and intermyofibrillar mitochondria (IMFM), which differ in cell localization as well as in morphological and biochemical properties. The aim of this work was to introduce the method of SSM and IMFM isolation in our laboratory and to analyse their antioxidative capacity after adaptation to chronic hypoxia. Adult male Wistar rats were kept either under normoxic conditions or exposed to intermittent high-altitude hypoxia (IHA; 7000 m, 5 days a week/8 hours a day, totally 25 exposures). Mitochondrial subpopulations were isolated from heart left ventricle and their functionality was verified by measuring oxygen consumption and enzyme activities. The IMFM had higher oxygen consumption in comparison with SSM and activities...

The aim of this thesis is to investigate molecular mechanism of reactive oxygen species production by flavin dehydrogenases mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (mGPDH) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). Together, they represent important source of reactive oxygen species in mammalian mitochondria, but the mechanism of electron leak is still poorly understood. Because mechanisms of reactive oxygen species production by other complexes of respiratory chain are better characterized, they can serve as case studies to get insight into mechanisms of reactive oxygen species by flavin dehydrogenases. Relevant knowledge is therefore summarized in the first part of the thesis. To study the production of reactive oxygen species by the isolated flavin dehydrogenases, we used brown adipose tissue mitochondria solubilized by digitonin as a model. Enzyme activity measurements, hydrogen peroxide production studies by Amplex UltraRed fluorescence and luminol luminescence revealed flavin as the most likely source of electron leak in SDH under in vivo conditions, while we propose coenzyme Q binding site as the site of reactive oxygen species production in the case of mGPDH. Distinct mechanism of this production by the two dehydrogenases is also apparent from induction of reactive oxygen species...

- 8 - ABSTRACT (EN) The thesis is submitted as a commented set of reviewed publications documenting and depicting the possibilities of mass spectrometry in the field of chemical, biological and pharmaceutical research; namely for the purposes of structure elucidation of selected organometallic complexes, analyses of drugs and their metabolites, monitoring of important biological markers. In course of experimental work, the following objectives were studied and solved:  Proposal and realization of micro-scale preparation of selected rhenium complexes with aromatic ligands, utilizing tetrabutyammonium tetrachlorooxorhenate as a starting material; preparation and structure characterization of oxorhenium(V) complexes with 1,2-dihydroxybenzene, 1,2,3-trihydroxybenzene, and 2,3- dihydroxynaphtalene as ligands by means of ESI/MS, APPI/MS and LDI-MS; ESI/MS and UV/Vis study of kinetic behavior of complexes arising from the reaction of tetrabutylamonnium tetrachlooxorhenate with pyrogallol and catechol as ligands. Special aim was devoted to the study of subsequent chemical transformation of primarily formed Re(V) complexes; structure characterization of selected ferrocene complexes with copper, gold and silver by means of ESI/MS.  Proposal of methodology of structure characterization and quantification of the...