Newborn babies and hibernating animals contain a large amount of brown adipose (fat) tissue (BAT). Certain proteins in the BAT cells increase the permeability of the inner mitochondrial membrane to protons, disrupting the proton gradient. Which of the following best predicts the effect of disrupting the proton gradient in BAT?
a. The pH of the matrix will increase, allowing the production of more ATP per gram of substrate.
b. The pH of the intermembrane space will decrease, allowing a steeper proton gradient to form.
c. Electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation will be decoupled, generating more heat but less ATP
d. The number of protons available to pass through ATP synthase will increase, resulting in more ATP