Bypass mechanism of F₁-ATPase for asymmetric enzyme kinetics

We discovered novel enzyme kinetics of F₁-ATPase, a biomolecular motor that synthesizes and hydrolyzes adenosine triphosphate (ATP), using single-molecule experiments and numerical simulations. The enzyme kinetics of F₁-ATPase followed the Michaelis-Menten equation in ATP hydrolysis but deviated from it in ATP synthesis, indicating asymmetric enzyme kinetics between ATP synthesis and hydrolysis. Numerical analysis based on a theoretical model revealed a bypass mechanism underlying asymmetric enzyme kinetics. In particular, we found that the origin of the asymmetric enzyme kinetics lies in the asymmetry of the allosterism, not in the asymmetry of potential shapes. The asymmetric enzyme kinetics may suggest that F₁-ATPase is designed to sustain the rate of ATP synthesis while suppressing the futile ATP consumption.