Structure of the ATP synthase from provides targets for treating tuberculosis.

The structure has been determined by electron cryomicroscopy of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase from This analysis confirms features in a prior description of the structure of the enzyme, but it also describes other highly significant attributes not recognized before that are crucial for understanding the mechanism and regulation of the mycobacterial enzyme. First, we resolved not only the three main states in the catalytic cycle described before but also eight substates that portray structural and mechanistic changes occurring during a 360° catalytic cycle. Second, a mechanism of auto-inhibition of ATP hydrolysis involves not only the engagement of the C-terminal region of an α-subunit in a loop in the γ-subunit, as proposed before, but also a "fail-safe" mechanism involving the b'-subunit in the peripheral stalk that enhances engagement.

Interface mobility between monomers in dimeric bovine ATP synthase participates in the ultrastructure of inner mitochondrial membranes.

The ATP synthase complexes in mitochondria make the ATP required to sustain life by a rotary mechanism. Their membrane domains are embedded in the inner membranes of the organelle, and they dimerize via interactions between their membrane domains. The dimers form extensive chains along the tips of the cristae with the two rows of monomeric catalytic domains extending into the mitochondrial matrix at an angle to each other.

Structure of the dimeric ATP synthase from bovine mitochondria.

The structure of the dimeric ATP synthase from bovine mitochondria determined in three rotational states by electron cryo-microscopy provides evidence that the proton uptake from the mitochondrial matrix via the proton inlet half channel proceeds via a Grotthus mechanism, and a similar mechanism may operate in the exit half channel. The structure has given information about the architecture and mechanical constitution and properties of the peripheral stalk, part of the membrane extrinsic region of the stator, and how the action of the peripheral stalk damps the side-to-side rocking motions that occur in the enzyme complex during the catalytic cycle. It also describes wedge structures in the membrane domains of each monomer, where the skeleton of each wedge is provided by three α-helices in the membrane domains of the b-subunit to which the supernumerary subunits e, f, and g and the membrane domain of subunit A6L are bound.