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Abstract

Vacuolar-type adenosine triphosphatases (V-ATPases) are electrogenic rotary mechanoenzymes structurally related to F-type ATP synthases. They hydrolyze ATP to establish electrochemical proton gradients for a plethora of cellular processes. In neurons, the loading of all neurotransmitters into synaptic vesicles is energized by ~1 V-ATPase molecule per synaptic vesicle. To shed light into this bona fide single-molecule biological process, we investigated electrogenic proton pumping by single mammalian-brain V-ATPases, using individual synaptic vesicles fused with immobilized liposomes. We show V-ATPases do not pump continuously in time, as hypothesized by observing the rotation of bacterial homologs and assuming strict ATP/proton coupling. Instead, they stochastically switch between three novel ultra-long-lived proton-pumping, inactive, and proton-leaky modes. Upending conventional wisdom, direct observation of pumping revealed that physiologically relevant concentrations of ATP do not regulate the intrinsic pumping rate. Instead, ATP regulates V-ATPase activity via the switching probability of the proton-pumping mode. In contrast, electrochemical proton gradients regulate the pumping rate and the switching of the pumping and inactive modes. This work reveals and emphasises the mechanistic and biological importance of mode-switching in protein regulation.