Life · life
ATP synthase
Motor · H, Mg
- Kind
- Motor
Function
A rotary motor. Protons crossing the membrane turn a ring of subunits like water turning a wheel, and the shaft attached to it deforms three catalytic sites in turn, each squeezing ADP and phosphate together into ATP. It runs backwards just as happily, spending ATP to pump protons.
Numbers
Around three ATP per revolution, and hundreds of revolutions a second. A human body turns over roughly its own mass in ATP each day, almost all of it here.
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