F
1-ATPase has been shown to be a stepwise molecular motor. Its rotation mechanism has beenexplained by the interaction of the
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
axis with the open and closed forms of the
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
subunit. Although NMRshould be a powerful method for elucidating its mechanism, its molecular size (473 amino acid residues,52 kDa) is a major obstacle. We have applied segmental labeling based on intein ligation to the
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
subunit,and succeeded in assigning 89% of the NH (402/451), 89% of the C
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
(417/473), 83% of the C
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
(357/431),and 90% of the CO (425/473) signals of the
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
subunit monomer. The secondary structures predicted fromthe chemical shifts of the main chain atoms and the relative orientations determined from residual dipolarcouplings indicated that the subunit
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
monomer takes on the open form in the absence of nucleotide.Furthermore, the chemical shift perturbation and the residual-dipolar-coupling changes induced by nucleotidebinding show that conformational change from the open to the closed form takes place on nucleotide binding.The intrinsic conformational change of the
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
subunit monomer induced by nucleotide binding must be oneof the essential driving forces for the rotation of F
1-ATPase.