The role of length and unsaturation of phospholipid acyl chains in the activation of ATPase complex was studied with synthetic phosphatidylcholines and a phospholipid-dependent preparation obtained after cholate-extraction of submitochondrial particles (Kagawa, Y. and Racker, E. (1966) J. Biol. Chem. 241, 2467--2474). 2. Micelle-forming, short-chain phosphatidylcholines produced activation only at critical micellar concentration. The reactivated complex was cold-stable but the oligomycin sensitivity was low. 3. Bilayer-forming saturated phosphatidylcholines produced activation which was maximal at 9 carbon atoms in each chain but decreased sharply as the chain-length was increased and essentially disappeared at 14 carbon atoms. By contrast the oligomycin-sensitivity increased with the increase in chain length. 4. Activation of ATPase complex reappeared when bilayers were formed with long-chain unsaturated phosphatidylcholines. The activity was oligomycin sensitive. Significant inhibition of activity was observed also after incorporation of cholesterol into the bilayers. 5. By contrast the activation induced by negatively charged liposomes of diacylphosphatidylglycerol was independent on acyl-chain composition and occurred at very low amounts of phospholipid. 6. The discontinuity in the Arrhenius plot of activity of the ATPase complex reactivated with saturated phospholipids was found at temperatures close to the gel-to-liquid crystalline transition of the lipid showing that the activity of ATPase complex was sensitive to the physical state of membrane phospholipids. 7. It is concluded that (a) reactivation of ATPase complex by isoelectric phospholipids is an interfacial activation, the minimum requirement for the lipid effect being micelle formation. (b) In order to gain the properties of the native complex a stable lamellar phase is needed. Both activity and oligomycin sensitivity are regulated by the chain length and degree of unsaturation of phospholipid acyl chains.
