The 70-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) chaperones perform a wide array of cellular functions that all derive from the ability of their N-terminal nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) to allosterically regulate the substrate affinity of their C-terminal substrate-binding domains in a nucleotide-dependent mechanism. To explore the structural origins of Hsp70 allostery, we performed NMR analysis on the NBD of DnaK, the Escherichia coli Hsp70, in six different states (ligand-bound or apo) and in two constructs, one that retains the conserved and functionally crucial portion of the interdomain linker (residues 389 VLLL 392 ) and another that lacks the linker. Chemical-shift perturbation patterns identify residues at subdomain interfaces that constitute allosteric networks and enable the NBD to act as a nucleotide-modulated switch. Nucleotide binding results in changes in subdomain orientations and long-range perturbations along subdomain interfaces. In particular, our findings provide structural details for a key mechanism of Hsp70 allostery, by which information is conveyed from the nucleotide-binding site to the interdomain linker. In the presence of ATP, the linker binds to the edge of the IIA β-sheet, which structurally connects the linker and the nucleotide-binding site. Thus, a pathway of allosteric communication leads from the NBD nucleotide-binding site to the substrate-binding domain via the interdomain linker. T he 70-kDa heat shock proteins (Hsp70s) compose one of the most well studied and ubiquitously distributed families of allosteric proteins (1). Hsp70s assist in an extraordinarily broad spectrum of cellular processes, including protein folding, disaggregation, and translocation. All chaperone activities of Hsp70s are based on their ability to interact with short hydrophobic peptide segments of protein substrate in an ATP-dependent fashion. Hsp70s contain two domains-a 44-kDa N-terminal nucleotidebinding domain (NBD) and a 15-kDa C-terminal substrate-binding domain (SBD)-connected by a highly conserved hydrophobic linker. The allosteric cycle of Hsp70s involves an alternation between the ATP-bound state with low affinity and fast exchange rates for substrates, and the ADP-bound state with high affinity and low exchange rates for substrates. In turn, substrate binding to the SBD results in about 10-fold stimulation of ATPase activity of the NBD. However, the same ATPase stimulation can be achieved for the isolated NBD in the presence of the conserved interdomain linker sequence motif ( 389 VLLL 392 ) (2-4), indicating that the linker plays a key role in NBD function and allostery.The Hsp70 NBD belongs to the Actin/Hexokinase/Hsp70 superfamily, members of which share a number of common features (5, 6). The NBD is composed of two lobes, I and II; each lobe consists, in turn, of two subdomains: IA and IB for lobe I, and IIA and IIB for lobe II. Nucleotide binds at the bottom of the deep central cleft at the interface between subdomains IB and IIB, and all four subdomains are involved in nucleotide coordination...