Glu-185 of the Escherichia coli H؉ -ATPase (ATP synthase)  subunit was replaced by 19 different amino acid residues. The rates of multisite (steady state) catalysis of all the mutant membrane ATPases except Asp-185 were less than 0.2% of the wild type one; the Asp-185 enzyme exhibited 15% (purified) and 16% (membrane-bound) ATPase activity. The purified inactive Cys-185 F 1 -ATPase recovered substantial activity after treatment with iodoacetate in the presence of MgCl 2 ; maximal activity was obtained upon the introduction of about 3 mol of carboxymethyl residues/mol of F 1 . The divalent cation dependences of the S-carboxymethyl-185 and Asp-185 ATPase activities were altered from that of the wild type. The Asp-185, Cys-185, S-carboxymethyl-185, and Gln-185 enzymes showed about 130, 60, 20, and 50% of the wild type unisite catalysis rates, respectively. The S-carboxymethyl-185 and Asp-185 enzymes showed altered divalent cation sensitivities, and the S-carboxymethyl-185 enzyme showed no Mg 2؉ inhibition. Unlike the wild type, the two mutant enzymes showed low sensitivities to azide, which stabilizes the enzyme Mg⅐ADP complex. These results suggest that Glu-185 may form a Mg 2؉ binding site, and its carboxyl moiety is essential for catalytic cooperativity. Consistent with this model, the bovine glutamate residue corresponding to Glu-185 is located close to the catalytic site in the higher order structure (Abrahams, J. P., Leslie, A. G. W., Lutter, R., and Walker, J. E. (1994) Nature 370, 621-628).The H ϩ -ATPase (ATP synthase) of Escherichia coli synthesizes ATP similar to those of mitochondria or chloroplasts (see Refs. 1-4 for reviews). The catalytic site of the enzyme is in the  subunit of the membrane extrinsic F 1 sector. Studies on mutant enzymes indicated that Lys-155 and Thr-156 in the  subunit phosphate loop or conserved glycine-rich sequence (Gly-Gly-Ala-Gly-Val-Gly-Lys-Thr, residues 149 -156; conserved residues underlined) and Glu-181 and Arg-182 in the conserved Gly-Glu-Arg sequence (residues 180 -182) are essential catalytic residues (5-7). Affinity labeling with ATP analogues indicated that Lys-155 bound the  and ␥ phosphate moiety of ATP (8). The crystal structure (9) of the bovine F 1 sector reported recently is essentially consistent with these results.The purified F 1 (␣ 3  3 ␥␦⑀ or F 1 -ATPase) hydrolyzes ATP through unisite (single site) or multisite (steady state) catalysis. The multisite rate is 10 5 -10 6 -fold faster than the unisite one due to the cooperativity of the multiple catalytic sites (10, 11). Conformational transmission for cooperativity may be initiated from a specific region(s) or residue(s) in the single catalytic site of the  subunit. Mutations near catalytic site residues often dramatically lower the multisite rate without changing unisite catalysis (6, 11, 12), possibly due to the defective conformational transmission between catalytic sites essential for the catalytic cooperativity. However, the role of a specific residue or region for the coopera...