Energy-transducing proteins in thermophilic biomembranes.

Biomembranes are the major site of energy transduction. The chemisomotic theroy of energy transduction is based on the following four major systems (i) H+-ATPase which is composed of a catalytic portion (F1) and a H+-channel (Fo), (ii) electron transport components, (iii) H+-linked porters, and (iv) a H+-impermeable lipid bilayer which is plugged through by systems i to iii that are specially oriented to translocate H+. Studies on the molecular mechanism of energy transduction have been hampered by the impurity, instability and complexity of preparations of membrane proteins from mesophilic organism. However, using stable, simple membrane proteins from a thermophilic bacterium, we obtained the following results: 1) Thermophilic H+-ATPase was dissociated into 5 subunits of F1 and 3 subunits of Fo and their functions and structures were studied by reconstitution. F1 was crystallized. 2) Thermophilic cytochrome oxidase, cytochrome c and NADH-dehydrogenase were purified. In contrast to the complex mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (7 subunits) and NADH-dehydrogenase (3 subunits), the purified thermophilic proteins were shown to be composed of single components. 3) H+-linked porters such as a H+-driven amino acid carrier and a Na+-H+ antiporter were characterized. 4) Thermophilic lipids were shown to be completely saturated. Using these stable lipids, liposomes capable of H+-driven vectorial reactions including net ATP synthesis and alanine transport were reconstituted.