ISOLATION OF PROKARYOTIC V0V1-ATPASE FROM A THERMOPHILIC EUBACTERIUM THERMUS-THERMOPHILUS

The soluble ATPase purified from an aerobic thermophilic eubacterium, Thermus thermophilus, was not a usual F-1-ATPase but a V-1-ATPase, a peripheral section of plasma membrane V-type ATPase (Yokoyama, K., Oshima, T., and Yoshida, M. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 21946-21950). Here, we report the purification of V-type ATPase from the same bacterium (V0V1-ATPase) which consists of V-1-ATPase and a membrane-integrated section, V-0. The V0V1-ATPase, either in the Triton X-100-solubilized membrane fraction or in the purified state, migrates as a single band in a non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for membrane protein complexes, and eight kinds of polypeptides are found when this band is developed in a second dimension denaturing gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The 66-, 56-, 30-, and 12-kDa polypeptides are the subunits of V-1-ATPase and the 100-, 38-, 24-, and 13-kDa polypeptides are candidates for V-0 (or V-0-associated) subunits. The amino-terminal amino acid sequences of the 38- and 24-kDa subunits do not show obvious similarity to any subunits of eukaryotic V0V1-ATPases. The kinetic properties of the purified V0V1-ATPase are very similar to those of V-1-ATPase: a very low ATPase activity, stimulation by bisulfite, inhibition by nitrate, and resistance against inhibitors of eukaryotic V-type ATPases, Bafilomycin A1 and N-ethylmaleimide. The V-0 vesicles prepared from reconstituted V0V1-ATPase vesicles by 6 M urea treatment show the H+ channel activity. This H+ channel activity is abolished either by treatment of vesicles with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide or by the back addition of V-1-ATPase. These results indicate that the coupling ion of this V0V1-ATPase is H+.