The thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius expresses a very unusual quinol oxidase, which contains four heme a redox centers and one copper atom. The enzyme was solubilized with dodecyl maltoside and purified to homogeneity by a combination of hydrophobic interaction and anion exchange chromatography. The oxidase complex consists of four polypeptide subunits with apparent molecular masses of 64, 39, 27, and 14 kDa that are encoded by the soxABCD operon (Lü bben, M., Kolmerer, B., and Saraste, M. (1992) EMBO J. 11, 805-812). The optical spectra and redox potentials of the SoxABCD complex have been characterized, and the absorption coefficients of the contributing cytochromes a 587 and aa 3 were determined. The EPR spectra indicate the presence of three low spin and one high spin heme species, the latter associated with the binuclear heme Cu B site. Standard midpoint potentials of the cytochrome a 587 heme centers were determined as ؉210 and ؉270 mV, respectively. The maximum turnover of the complex (1300 s ؊1 at 65°C) was found to be about three times greater than that of the previously studied isolated cytochrome aa 3 subunit alone (Gleissner, ؉ /e ؊ ratio >1 was determined, identifying the SoxABCD complex as a proton-pumping quinol oxidase. According to structural analysis, the cytochrome aa 3 moiety of the complex does not contain the signature of a H ؉ pumping channel as identified in Rhodobacter sphaeroides or Paracoccus denitrificans. Therefore, for H ؉ translocation, a mechanism different from that in typical heme-copper oxidases of the aa 3 or bo 3 type is discussed.M