The 20 C-terminal amino acid residues of the chloroplast ATP synthase gamma subunit are not essential for activity.

It has been suggested that the last seven to nine amino acid residues at the C terminus of the gamma subunit of the ATP synthase act as a spindle for rotation of the gamma subunit with respect to the alpha beta subunits during catalysis (Abrahams, J. P., Leslie, A. G. W., Lutter, R., and Walker, J. E. (1994) Nature 370, 621-628). To test this hypothesis we selectively deleted C-terminal residues from the chloroplast gamma subunit, two at a time starting at the sixth residue from the end and finishing at the 20th residue from the end. The mutant gamma genes were overexpressed in Escherichia coli and assembled with a native alpha3beta3 complex. All the mutant forms of gamma assembled as effectively as the wild-type gamma. Deletion of the terminal 6 residues of gamma resulted in a significant increase (>50%) in the Ca-dependent ATPase activity when compared with the wild-type assembly. The increased activity persisted even after deletion of the C-terminal 14 residues, well beyond the seven residues proposed to form the spindle. Further deletions resulted in a decreased activity to approximately 19% of that of the wild-type enzyme after deleting all 20 C-terminal residues. The results indicate that the tip of the gammaC terminus is not essential for catalysis and raise questions about the role of the C terminus as a spindle for rotation.