Cells use water in nano-rotors to power energy conversion
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have provided the first atomic-level glimpse of the proton-driven motor from a major group of ATP synthases, enzymes that are central to cellular energy conversion. The study, by Dr Thomas Meier, his PhD student Laura Preiss and Dr Oezkan Yildiz of the Max-Planck Institute, and Drs. Terry Krulwich and David Hicks of Mount Sinai, revealed a water molecule in the critical rotor element of a bacterial nano-motor that shares common features with the rotors of ATP synthases from human mitochondria and from diverse bacteria, including pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in which the ATP synthase is a drug target. The paper publishes next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology...