Content and binding characteristics of the mitochondrial ATPase inhibitor,IF1 in the tissues of several slow and fast heart-rate homeothermic species and in two poikilotherms

We determined the IF₁ contents of pig, rabbit, rat, mouse, guinea pig, pigeon, turtle, and frog heart mitochondria and the effects of varying ionic strength upon the IF₁-mediated inhibition of the ATPase activity of IF₁-depleted rabbit heart mitochondrial particles (RHMP) by IF₁-containing extracts from these same eight species. The IF₁ binding experiments were run at both species-endogenous IF₁ levels and at an IF₁ level normalized to that present in rabbit heart mitochondria. When species-endogenous levels of rabbit heart IF₁ or either speciesendogenous or normalized levels of pig heart IF₁ were incubated with RHMP over a range of KCl concentrations, increasing the KCl] to 150 mM had relatively little effect on IF₁-mediated ATPase inhibition. When either species-endogenous or normalized levels of guinea pig, pigeon, turtle, or frog heart IF₁ were incubated with RHMP under the same conditions, increasing KCl] to 150 mM nearly completely blocked IF₁-mediated ATPase inhibition. While species-endogenous levels of rat and mouse heart IF₁ inhibited the ATPase activity of RHMP virtually not at all at any KCl] examined, normalized levels of rat and mouse IF₁ inhibited the ATPase activity of RHMP to the same extents as species-endogenous levels of pig and rabbit heart IF₁, respectively, in the presence of increasing KCl]. These experiments suggest that, while pig and rabbit heart mitochondria contain a full complement of higher-affinity IF₁, pigeon, guinea pig, turtle, and frog heart mitochondria cell contain essentially a full complement of a lower-affinity form of IF₁. In contrast, rat and mouse heart mitochondria contain only low levels of IF₁ which exhibit binding characteristics similar to those of the pig and rabbit heart inhibitor. The guinea pig is the only mammal thus far examined that contains a loweraffinity form of IF₁. In the present study we also determined the IF₁ contents and IF₁-to-F₁ ATPase activity ratios of cardiac muscle, skeletal muscle, liver, and brain mitochondria of rabbit, pigeon, and rat, species representative of the three homeothermic regulatory classes.