Evidence for functional heterogeneity among the catalytic sites of the bovine heart mitochondrial F1-ATPase.

The characteristics of ATP hydrolysis at a single catalytic site of the bovine heart F1-ATPase (MF1) as originally described by Grubmeyer et al. (Grubmeyer, C., Cross, R.L., and Penefsky, H.S. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 12092-12100) were compared with those of various chemically modified preparations of MF1 in which the steady state activity was severely attenuated. Although it was not necessary to age our preparations of native MF1 in the presence of 2 mM Pi to observe the same characteristics of single site catalysis, such aging did shift the equilibrium of bound substrate and bound products at the single catalytic site in favor of ATP. After loading a single catalytic site on the enzyme with substoichiometric [alpha,gamma-32P]ATP, the addition of 5-20 microM ATP or ADP was effective in promoting both the hydrolysis of bound [alpha,gamma-32P]ATP and release of radioactive products. Under these conditions, the 5-20 microM ATP added as promoter was hydrolyzed at a rate commensurate with the turnover rate of the enzyme, whereas the promoted hydrolysis of the [alpha,gamma-32P]ATP, preloaded at a single catalytic site, was considerably slower. Therefore, the high affinity, single catalytic site loaded first does not directly contribute to steady state ATP hydrolysis. That the single, high affinity catalytic site is not a "normal" catalytic site is supported by the properties of enzyme modified by 5'-p-fluorosulfonylbenzoyladenosine which exhibits only slightly altered characteristics of single site catalysis and promoted single site catalysis, despite exhibiting severely attenuated steady state turnover. Other modified forms of the enzyme in which the steady state activity was severely attenuated by derivatization with 5'-p-fluorosulfonylbenzoylinosine, 7-chloro-4-nitrobenzofurazan, or 1,5-difluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene also bound substoichiometric ATP at a single catalytic site. However, the characteristics of single site hydrolysis by these modified forms of the enzyme differed considerably from those of native MF1.