Proteins required for the binding of mitrochondrial ATPase to the mitochondrial inner membrane

1. Isolated F1 (mitochondrial ATPase) binds to urea-treated submitochondrial particles suspended in sucrose/Tris/EDTA with a dissociation constant of 0.1 muM. 2. About one-third of the F1 and the oligomycin-sensitivity conferring protein (OSCP) are lost during preparation of submitochondrial particles prepared at high pH (A particles). None is lost from particles treated with trypsin (T particles). 3. After further treatment with alkali of urea-treated particles, binding of F1 requires the addition of OSCP. Maximum binding is reached when both OSCP and Fc2 are added. The concentration of F1-binding sites in the presence of both OSCP and Fc2 is about the same as that in TU particles. 4. After further extraction with silicotungstate of urea- and alkali-treated particles, OSCP no longer induces binding of F1, unless Fc2 is also present. Fc2 induces binding in the absence of OSCP but with a lower binding constant and, in contrast to results under all the other conditions studied in this paper, the ATPase activity is oligomycin insensitive. 5. It is tentatively concluded that OSCP is the binding site for F1 and Fc2 is the binding site for OSCP.