Cardiolipin is essential for higher proton translocation activity of reconstituted F_o

The Fo membrane domain of FoF1-ATPase complex had been purified from porcine heart mitochondria. SDS-PAGE with silver staining indicated that the purity of Fo was about 85% and the sample contained no subunits of F1-ATPase. The purified Fo was reconstituted into liposomes with different phospholipid composition, and the effect of CL (cardiolipin), PA (phosphatidic acid), PI (phosphatidylinositol) and PS (phosphatidylserine) on the H+ translocation activity of Fo was investigated. The results demonstrated that CL, PA and PI could promote the proton translocation of Fo with the order of CL>PA>>PI, while PS inhibited it. Meanwhile ADM (adriamycin) severely impaired the proton translocation activity of Fo vesicles containing CL, which suggested that CL's stimulation of the activity of reconstituted Fo might correlate with its non-bilayer propensity. After Fo was incorporated into the liposomes containing PE (phosphatidylethanolamine), DOPE (dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine) as well as DEPE (dielaidoylphosphatidylethanolamine), it was found that the proton translocation activity of Fo vesicles increased with the increasing content of PE or DOPE, which has high propensity of forming non-bilayer structure, but was independent of DEPE. The dynamic quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of tryptophan by HB (hypocrellin B) as well as fluorescent spectrum of acrylodan labeling Fo at cysteine indicated that CL could induce Fo to a suitable conformation resulting in higher proton translocation activity.