Early onset dystonia is commonly associated with the deletion of one of a pair of glutamate residues (⌬E302/303) near the C terminus of torsinA, a member of the AAA؉ protein family (ATPases associated with a variety of cellular activities) located in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen. The functional consequences of the disease-causing mutation, ⌬E, are not currently understood. By contrast to other AAA؉ proteins, torsin proteins contain two conserved cysteine residues in the C-terminal domain, one of which is located in the nucleotide sensor II motif. Depending on redox status, an ATP hydrolysis mutant of torsinA interacts with lamina-associated polypeptide 1 (LAP1) and lumenal domain like LAP1 (LULL1). Substitution of the cysteine in sensor II diminishes the redox-regulated interaction of torsinA with these substrates. Significantly, the dystonia-causing mutation, ⌬E, alters the ability of torsinA to mediate the redox-regulated interactions with LAP1 and LULL1. Limited proteolysis experiments reveal redox-and mutation-dependent changes in the local conformation of torsinA as a function of nucleotide binding. These results indicate that the cysteinecontaining sensor II plays a critical role in redox sensing and the nucleotide and partner binding functions of torsinA and suggest that loss of this function of torsinA contributes to the development of DYT1 dystonia.Torsion dystonia is an autosomal dominant movement disorder that causes the muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily. These muscle contractions force the body into repetitive movements and often twisted postures. The most common and severe early onset form of dystonia has been linked to the mutations in the human DYT1 (TOR1A) gene encoding the protein torsinA (1, 2). Although the function of torsinA and the mechanism underlying dystonia disease remain obscure, the sequence of torsinA is homologous to a large and diverse group of ATP-dependent oligomeric proteins named the AAAϩ protein family. The AAAϩ proteins typically form oligomeric rings that catalyze a variety of cellular processes, including protein translocation, membrane trafficking, and conformational remodeling of regulatory factors (3-5). TorsinA is the founding member of a subfamily of AAAϩ proteins that includes torsinB (TOR1B) and two other related gene products (TOR2A and TOR3A) in mammals and OOC-5 in Caenorhabditis elegans (1, 6, 7).The signal sequence and the following hydrophobic region at the N terminus (Fig. 1A) target torsinA to the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). 3 In the ER, torsinA perhaps acts on secreted (8, 9) or stress-related protein substrates (10). Unlike ClpA and ClpB, torsinA lacks a substrate-binding domain or other functional region outside its ATPase domain (11). Experimental evidence suggests that torsinA mediates varied cellular activities, including protection from toxic cellular stress (12-15), trafficking of membrane-associated proteins (16), and synaptic vesicle recycling (17). In this regard, torsinA regulates trafficking of a G-protein-coupled recept...