Meet the Souped-up Version of ATP Synthase

A vacuole. No big deal. A bubble inside a bigger bubble, the cell. A storage place for fats, perhaps. One could be forgiven in Victorian days for being so dismissive. Now we know better. Who ever would have dreamt that turbo-charged rotary engines line the membranes of vacuoles, setting the acidity inside to tightly regulated specifications?

Our popular video on ATP synthase illustrates one variety of rotary motor in the cell: the F-type ATPase. These molecular marvels, a tenth the size of t...