The discovery of an uncoupling mitochondrial protein in plants

This paper describes peculiar properties of plant mitochondria and summariz es the experiments that led to the discovery of an uncoupling protein in th ese mitochondria. Recent advances in the study of the biochemical and physi ological properties as well as on genes encoding plant uncoupling proteins are described in articles by Borecky et al., Jezek et al., and Jarmuszkiewi cz et al. in this issue.