Studies of the rotational activity of the enzymatic core (α3β3γ) of the F1-ATPase motor protein have relied on binding the enzyme to NTA-coated glass surfaces via polyhistidine tags engineered into the C-termini of each of the three α or β subunits. Those studies revealed the rotational motion of the central γ subunit by monitoring the motion of attached micron-long actin filaments or spherical nanoparticles. However, only a small percentage of the attached filaments or particles were observed to rotate, likely due, at least in part, to non-uniform surface attachment of the motor proteins. In this study, we have applied surface plasmon resonance to monitor the kinetics and affinity of binding of the His-tagged motor protein to NTA-coated gold sensor surfaces. The binding data, when fit to a heterogeneous binding model, exhibit two sets of adsorption–desorption rate constants with two dissociation constants of 4.0 × 10−9 M and 8.6 × 10−11 M for 6His-α3β3γ binding to the nickel ion-activated NTA surface. The data are consistent with mixed attachment of the protein via two (bimodal) and three (trimodal) NTA/Ni2+-His-tag interactions, respectively, with the less stable bimodal interaction dominating. The results provide a partial explanation for the low number of surface-attached F1 motors previously observed in rotation studies and suggest alternative approaches to uniform F1 motor surface attachment for future fabrication of motor-based nanobiodevices and materials.
