pH dependent changes in ADP and ATP affinity for the tight nucleotide-binding site of chloroplast coupling factor 1.

The pH-dependence of ADP and ATP affinity for CF1 tight nucleotide-binding sites was studied under conditions of equilibrium between bound and free labeled nucleotides. With the nucleotide/CF1 ratio>1, the ATP content in tightly bound nucleotides depended only slightly on medium pH. With the nucleotide/CF1 ratio approaching 1, tightly bound ATP content grew rapidly with decreasing pH. Calculations of ADP/ATP ratio in free and tightly bound nucleotides showed that decreasing the pH from 8.0 to 6.0 induced a 150 times greater affinity of the nucleotide-binding site for ATP than for ADP. The data indicates that ATP-ADP equilibrium at the CF1 tight nucleotide-binding site depends on protonation of specific acid-base groups of the enzyme.