Age upon ATP hydrolysis can also be excluded, because the standard dissociation energy of a single disulfide bond (,200 kJ/mol) greatly exceeds the standard free energy of ATP hydrolysis (,60 kJ/mol) [4]. When the penultimate residue of the C-terminal end of subunit c (c285C, MM10) is locked to subunit a uncoiling of its C-terminal a-helix, as suggested previously [17], is a more reasonable explanation. Figure 5 shows a snapshot of a simulation that demonstrated the unwinding of this domain within the hydrophobic bearing of (ab)3. The peptide backbone twists around the N-Ca and Ca-C’ bonds, the dihedral angles Q and y of the Ramachandran plot, respectively. The Ramachandran angles of the two C-terminal residues cG282 and cA284 are particularly susceptible to twisting motion. It was shown by molecular dynamics calculations [17] that on a nanosecond timescale the Tramiprosate chemical information a-helix can rotate in particular around the Ramachandran angle w of these two residues. The activation barrier for this rotation was 25?0 kJ/mol. The high torque apparently generated by ATPhydrolyzing EF1 was sufficient to uncoil the C-terminal a-helix of subunit c and to MedChemExpress FCCP overcome the Ramachandran activation barriers. However, simulations cannot account for timescales of ms, the time domain of the active enzyme. At the two positions c279C (FH4) and c276C (GH19), below c282?86 (the flexible top region of subunit c), the cross-link impaired the ATP driven rotation. Still, some activity remained suggesting that the a-helix can be unwinded farther down by the same mechanism. In contrast, a cross-link farther down at the middle position c262C (PP2) inhibited the rotation totally. The inhibitory crosslink is positioned where the N-terminal a-helix meets its Cterminal counterpart (at c268) to form an antiparallel coiled coil. This section is not prone 23977191 to uncoiling, probably because the torqueFigure 5. Still picture of a molecular dynamics simulation of unwinding subunit c. The calculation by D. Cherepanov was performed as described in Gumbiowski et al. [17]. In short a torque of 56 pNnm was applied to the last 30 residues of subunit c (MM10), which was fixed at residue c285C. The calculation was done by NAMD2 [32] and CHARMM22 [33]. The picture shows the uncoiled C-terminal end of subunit c within the same hydrophobic bearing of subunits a and b as 23727046 in Fig. 1. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053754.gis not high enough to disrupt the interactions between the two ahelixes of the coiled coil. At the bottom (c87C, SW3) subunit c was cross-linked to the region in b that is responsible for the opening and closing of the nucleotide-binding site. At this position the flexibility of subunit c is needed for the regulation of the catalytic reaction (see below). Therefore, it is understandable that a cross-link at this site also totally inhibits the rotation of subunit c. In conclusion, subunit c consists of three portions, namely (i) a globular portion at the bottom facing the membrane, and interacting with subunit e, (ii) an antiparallel coiled coil in the middle, and (iii) a singular a-helix at the top C-terminal end. (i) The globular portion at the bottom, together with subunit e [11], establishes the contact with the c-ring of FO. It is the elastically most compliant domain of this enzyme, and the major elastic buffer for power transmission between FO and F1 [24?6]. The elastic power transmission is a prerequisite for the high kinetic efficiency of the two coupled stepping rotary motors [4,27?9]. (ii.Age upon ATP hydrolysis can also be excluded, because the standard dissociation energy of a single disulfide bond (,200 kJ/mol) greatly exceeds the standard free energy of ATP hydrolysis (,60 kJ/mol) [4]. When the penultimate residue of the C-terminal end of subunit c (c285C, MM10) is locked to subunit a uncoiling of its C-terminal a-helix, as suggested previously [17], is a more reasonable explanation. Figure 5 shows a snapshot of a simulation that demonstrated the unwinding of this domain within the hydrophobic bearing of (ab)3. The peptide backbone twists around the N-Ca and Ca-C’ bonds, the dihedral angles Q and y of the Ramachandran plot, respectively. The Ramachandran angles of the two C-terminal residues cG282 and cA284 are particularly susceptible to twisting motion. It was shown by molecular dynamics calculations [17] that on a nanosecond timescale the a-helix can rotate in particular around the Ramachandran angle w of these two residues. The activation barrier for this rotation was 25?0 kJ/mol. The high torque apparently generated by ATPhydrolyzing EF1 was sufficient to uncoil the C-terminal a-helix of subunit c and to overcome the Ramachandran activation barriers. However, simulations cannot account for timescales of ms, the time domain of the active enzyme. At the two positions c279C (FH4) and c276C (GH19), below c282?86 (the flexible top region of subunit c), the cross-link impaired the ATP driven rotation. Still, some activity remained suggesting that the a-helix can be unwinded farther down by the same mechanism. In contrast, a cross-link farther down at the middle position c262C (PP2) inhibited the rotation totally. The inhibitory crosslink is positioned where the N-terminal a-helix meets its Cterminal counterpart (at c268) to form an antiparallel coiled coil. This section is not prone 23977191 to uncoiling, probably because the torqueFigure 5. Still picture of a molecular dynamics simulation of unwinding subunit c. The calculation by D. Cherepanov was performed as described in Gumbiowski et al. [17]. In short a torque of 56 pNnm was applied to the last 30 residues of subunit c (MM10), which was fixed at residue c285C. The calculation was done by NAMD2 [32] and CHARMM22 [33]. The picture shows the uncoiled C-terminal end of subunit c within the same hydrophobic bearing of subunits a and b as 23727046 in Fig. 1. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053754.gis not high enough to disrupt the interactions between the two ahelixes of the coiled coil. At the bottom (c87C, SW3) subunit c was cross-linked to the region in b that is responsible for the opening and closing of the nucleotide-binding site. At this position the flexibility of subunit c is needed for the regulation of the catalytic reaction (see below). Therefore, it is understandable that a cross-link at this site also totally inhibits the rotation of subunit c. In conclusion, subunit c consists of three portions, namely (i) a globular portion at the bottom facing the membrane, and interacting with subunit e, (ii) an antiparallel coiled coil in the middle, and (iii) a singular a-helix at the top C-terminal end. (i) The globular portion at the bottom, together with subunit e [11], establishes the contact with the c-ring of FO. It is the elastically most compliant domain of this enzyme, and the major elastic buffer for power transmission between FO and F1 [24?6]. The elastic power transmission is a prerequisite for the high kinetic efficiency of the two coupled stepping rotary motors [4,27?9]. (ii.