Driving Forces of Translocation Through Bacterial Translocon SecYEG

This review focusses on the energetics of protein translocation via the Sec translocation machinery. First we complement structural data about SecYEG’s conformational rearrangements by insight obtained from functional assays. These include measurements of SecYEG permeability that allow assessment of channel gating by ligand binding and membrane voltage. Second we will discuss the power stroke and Brownian ratcheting models of substrate translocation and the role that the two models assign to the putative driving forces: (i) ATP (SecA) and GTP (ribosome) hydrolysis, (ii) interaction with accessory proteins, (iii) membrane partitioning and folding, (iv) proton motive force (PMF), and (v) entropic contributions. Our analysis underlines how important energized membranes are for unravelling the translocation mechanism in future experiments.