Unwinding the world's smallest biological rotary motor by degrees

F-Type ATP synthase, a catalytic complex of proteins, synthesizes adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of living cells. A lot of ambiguity exists over the rotational mechanism of this spinning enzyme. Now, researchers from Japan have demonstrated how each chemical event of ATP metabolism is linked to the 'stepwise' rotational movement of the F1 component of ATPase. Especially, they clarified the angle of shaft rotation before ATP-cleavage, a long-standing enigma, to be 200°.