Component of the cytochrome c oxidase, the last enzyme in the mitochondrial electron transport chain which drives oxidative phosphorylation. The respiratory chain contains 3 multisubunit complexes succinate dehydrogenase (complex II, CII), ubiquinol-cytochrome c oxidoreductase (cytochrome b-c1 complex, complex III, CIII) and cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV, CIV), that cooperate to transfer electrons derived from NADH and succinate to molecular oxygen, creating an electrochemical gradient over the inner membrane that drives transmembrane transport and the ATP synthase. Cytochrome c oxidase is the component of the respiratory chain that catalyzes the reduction of oxygen to water. Electrons originating from reduced cytochrome c in the intermembrane space (IMS) are transferred via the dinuclear copper A center (CU (A)) of subunit 2 and heme A of subunit 1 to the active site in subunit 1, a binuclear center (BNC) formed by heme A3 and copper B (CU (B)). The BNC reduces molecular oxygen to 2 water molecules using 4 electrons from cytochrome c in the IMS and 4 protons from the mitochondrial matrix. Component of the cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV, CIV), a multisubunit enzyme composed of 14 subunits. The complex is composed of a catalytic core of 3 subunits MT-CO1, MT-CO2 and MT-CO3, encoded in the mitochondrial DNA, and 11 supernumerary subunits COX4I1 (or COX4I2), COX5A, COX5B, COX6A1 (or COX6A2), COX6B1 (or COX6B2), COX6C, COX7A2 (or COX7A1), COX7B, COX7C, COX8A and NDUFA4, which are encoded in the nuclear genome.