Abstract

Mitochondrial F1F0 ATP synthase is the key enzyme to fuel the cell with essential ATP. Strong indications exist that the respiratory chain and the ATP synthase are physically separated within cristae. How static this organization is, is largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effect of substrate restriction on mitochondrial respiration and the spatio-temporal organization of ATP synthase. By superresolution microscopy, the localization and mobility of single labelled mitochondrial ATP synthase was determined in live cells. We found, that the ATP synthase under oxidative respiration displayed a clear localization and confined mobility in cristae. Trajectories of individual ATP synthase proteins show a perpendicular course to the longitudinal axis of the respective mitochondrion, exactly following the ultrastructure of cristae. When substrate for TCA cycle and respiration was limited, a significant proportion of ATP synthase localized from cristae to the inner boundary membrane, and only less mobile ATP synthase remained in cristae. These observations showing the plasticity of the spatio-temporal organisation of ATP synthase can explain why ATP synthase show interactions with proteins in distinct mitochondrial subcompartments such as inner boundary membrane, cristae junctions and cristae.