Crystallographic structure of the turbine C-ring from spinach chloroplast F-ATP synthase

• Main Authors: Seelert, Holger, Marx, Sven‑Hendric, Dencher, Norbert A., Grüber, Gerhard, Balakrishna, Asha Manikkoth
• Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/104005; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/19485
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, F-ATP synthases provide energy through the synthesis of ATP. The chloroplast F-ATP synthase (CF1FO-ATP synthase) of plants is integrated into the thylakoid membrane via its FO-domain subunits a, b, b’ and c. Subunit c with a stoichiometry of 14 and subunit a form the gate for H+-pumping, enabling the coupling of electrochemical energy with ATP synthesis in the F1 sector. Here we report the crystallization and structure determination of the c14-ring of subunit c of the CF1FO-ATP synthase from spinach chloroplasts. The crystals belonged to space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a=144.420, b=99.295, c=123.51 Å, and β=104.34° and diffracted to 4.5 Å resolution. Each c-ring contains 14 monomers in the asymmetric unit. The length of the c-ring is 60.32 Å, with an outer ring diameter 52.30 Å and an inner ring width of 40 Å.