 |
Inhaltsübersicht | Nanomaschinen | Moleküle | Programme | Kurse | Fun | Links |
 |
| > |
ATP Synthase
Exploring the F0 Structure
PDB entry 1c17 includes the F0 electric motor. In this picture, we are looking down the axis of rotation, as if we where looking down at the top of the picture on the first page. The rotor is composed of 12 identical protein chains, colored blue here, and the ion pump is a single chain, colored red. The pump has an arginine amino acid that hands off a hydrogen ion to aspartates on the rotor. Aspartate amino acids typically have a negative charge, but since the rotor is surrounded by membrane lipids, this would be very unfavorable. So, the rotor only turns when the aspartates have a hydrogen attached, neutralizing their charge. Hydrogen ions take a convoluted path through the F0 motor, turning the rotor in the process. They are gathered from outside the cell by a chain of amino acids in the pump, and transferred to the arginine. The arginine passes the hydrogen to the rotor, which turns all the way around. Then the hydrogen is offloaded by other amino acids on the pump, and finally passed inside the cell. The exact path of the hydrogen ions through the pump is still a matter of intense study.These pictures were created with RasMol. You can create similar pictures by clicking on the accession codes here and picking one of the options under View Structure.
A list of ATP Synthase related entries in the PDB as determined by a keyword search on December 1, 2005 is available here. For more information on ATP synthase, click here.
Next: Interaktive 3D-Animation
Previous: Exploring the F1 Structure
Last changed by: A.Honegger,