UCP1: Proteins and Enzymes

Mitochondrial brown fat uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1; also Thermogenin and UCP) is a 33 kDa member of the mitochondrial carrier family of proteins. Human and mouse UCP1 are both 307 amino acids (aa) in length and contain three solcar repetitive regions and six transmembrane segments. UCP1 is found in brown adipose tissue, where it becomes activated by fatty acids and inhibited by nucleotides. It functions as a mitochondrial transporter that creates a proton leak across the inner mitochondrial membrane, uncoupling oxidative phosphorylation from ATP synthesis. As a result, energy is dissipated in the form of heat. Human and mouse UCP1 share 79% aa sequence identity