REVIEW: Lel A. Drachev and the Direct Electrometric Method

---

Vasily V. Ptushenko¹ and Alexey Y. Semenov^1,a*

¹Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received June 23, 2023; Revised July 14, 2023; Accepted July 17, 2023

---

In the bioenergetics studies, the direct electrometric method played an important role. This method is based on measuring the electrical potential difference (Δψ) between two compartments of the experimental cell generated by some membrane proteins. These proteins are incorporated into closed lipid–protein membrane vesicles associated with an artificial lipid membrane that separates the compartments. The very existence of such proteins able to generate Δψ was one of the consequences of Peter Mitchell’s chemiosmotic concept. The discovery and investigation of their functioning contributed to the recognition of this concept and, eventually the well-deserved awarding of the Nobel Prize to P. Mitchell. Lel A. Drachev (1926-2022) was one of the main authors of the direct electrometrical method. With his participation, key studies were carried out on the electrogenesis of photosynthetic and respiratory membrane proteins, including bacteriorhodopsin, visual rhodopsin, photosynthetic bacterial reaction centers, cytochrome oxidase and others.

---

KEY WORDS: Mitchell’s chemiosmotic hypothesis, transmembrane electric potential difference (Δψ), methods of membrane potential measurement, molecular electric generators, proteoliposomes, chromatophores, bacteriorhodopsin, photosystem I

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297923100012

---