Oxidative phosphorylation is a process which leads to the formation of ATP molecule. During oxidative phosphorylation, the transfer of electrons from reducing equivalents like NADH and FADH₂ formed during cellular respiration to oxygen leads to the formation of ATP.
Since oxidative phosphorylation involves the transfer of electrons from these equivalents through the electron transport chain which takes place in the inner membrane space of mitochondria. Therefore, oxidative phosphorylation and electron transport chain are interlinked.
It is likely that the researchers are studying the function of this gene that encodes for a lipase enzyme. In molecular biology, it is common to use cell lines which are transfected with constructs that contain genes or gene regions in order to study the function of these genes (or genetic elements
)
