Figure 14–29 The basic relationship between free-energy changes and equilibrium in the ATP hydrolysis reaction. the rate constants in boxes 1 and 2 are determined from experiments in which product accumulation is measured as a function of time (conc., concentration). the equilibrium constant shown here, K, is in units of moles per liter. (See panel 2–7, pp. 102–103, for a discussion of free energy and see Figure 3–44 for a discussion of the equilibrium constant.) flow makes the rotor stalk rotate inside the stationary head, where the catalytic sites that assemble ATP from ADP and Pi are located. Three α and three β subunits of similar structure alternate to form the head. Each of the three β subunits has a catalytic nucleotide-binding site at the α/βinterface. These catalytic sites are all in different conformations, depending on their interaction with the rotor stalk. This stalk acts like a camshaft, the device that opens and closes the valves in a combustion engine. As it rotates within the head, the stalk changes the conformations of the β subunits sequentially. One of the possible conformations of the catalytic sites has high affinity for ADP and Pi, and as the rotor stalk pushes the binding site into a different conformation, these two substrates are driven to form ATP. In this way, the mechanical force exerted by the central rotor stalk is directly converted into the chemical energy of the ATP phosphate bond.
Serving as a proton-driven turbine, the ATP synthase is driven by H+ flow into the matrix to spin at about 8000 revolutions per minute, generating three molecules of ATP per turn. In this way, each ATP synthase can produce roughly 400 molecules of ATP per second.
proton-driven turbines are of ancient Origin
The membrane-embedded rotors of ATP synthases consist of a ring of identical c subunits (Figure 14–31). Each c subunit is a hairpin of two membrane-spanning α helices that contain a proton-binding site defined by a glutamate or aspartate in the middle of the lipid bilayer. The a subunit, which is part of the stator (see Figure 14–30), makes two narrow channels at the interface between the rotor and stator, each spanning half of the membrane and converging on the proton-binding site at the middle of the rotor subunit. Protons flow through the two half-channels down their electrochemical gradient from the crista space back into the matrix. A negatively charged side chain in the binding site accepts a proton arriving from the crista space through the first half-channel, as it rotates past the a subunit. The bound proton then rides round in the ring for a full cycle, whereupon it is thought to be displaced by a positively charged arginine in the a subunit, and escapes