We have investigated the oxidation of the reduced ubiquinol : cytochrome c reductase (bcl complex) isolated from beef heart mitochondria. The oxidation of cytochrome cl by both potassium ferricyanide and cytochrome c in the ascorbate-reduced bcl complex is not a first-order process. This is taken as evidence that cytochrome cI is in rapid equilibrium with the Rieske iron-sulphur center. Among the several inhibitors tested, only 5-n-undecyl-6-hydroxy-4,7-dioxobenzothiazole and stigmatellin are seen to affect this redox equilibrium between the highpotential centers of the beef heart bcl complex.The oxidation of cytochrome b by cytochrome c in both the succinate-reduced and the fully reduced bcl complex is blocked by all the inhibitors tested. This inhibition occurs simultaneously with an acceleration in the oxidation of cytochrome cl, even after extraction of the endogenous ubiquinone which is present in the bcl preparation. Almost complete extraction of ubiquinone from the bcl complex has no effect upon the rapid phase of cytochrome b oxidation, nor does it alter the inhibition of cytochrome b oxidation by the various inhibitors.The oxidation of cytochrome b by exogenous ubiquinones is stimulated by myxothiazol and partially inhibited by antimycin. However, the addition of both these inhibitors together completely blocks the oxidation of cytochrome b by quinones. In contrast, the simultaneous addition of antimycin and myxothiazol has no such synergistic effect upon the oxidation of cytochrome b by cytochrome c.Our data show that intramolecular electron transfer from cytochrome(s) b to the Rieske iron-sulphur center can take place in the bcl complex without involvement of endogenous ubiquinone-10. This electron pathway is sensitive to all the inhibitors of the enzyme. . In addition to these four intrinsic prosthetic groups, a complement of endogenous ubiquinone (mostly ubiquinone-10 in mammals) is usually found in purified preparations of the bcl complex; this quinone is present in an amount which is approximately equimolar with respect to cytochrome c1 Cytochrome c1 and the Rieske iron-sulphur center have their prosthetic groups located in a hydrophilic domain of the complex and are believed to protrude out of the cytoplasmic face of the membrane [I, 21. These redox centers react readily with membrane-impermeant redox mediators such as ferricyanide, ascorbate and the physiological electron acceptor cytochrome c [2]. The latter protein has been shown to react only with cytochrome c1 [2, 71. The 2Fe-2S cluster and c1 are in very rapid redox equilibrium [8,9] and possess a midpoint potential much higher than that of both ubiquinone and the cytochromes b [2,4,9, 101. The use of a variety of specific inhibitors of the bcl complex has been of great value in understanding the observed kinetics of electron transfer [4, 11 -161 (for a review see [12, 171). According to the concepts of the Q-cycle, antimycin, HQNO and funiculosin interact at center ' i ' , whereas a large group of inhibitors including myxothyazol, muci...