1. The isolation of the ADPiATP translocator from beef heart mitochondria as the bongkrekateprotein complex is described, using hydroxyapatite chromatography and gel filtration in Triton X-100 solution.2. The inhibitor is bound to the protein prior to solubilization with detergent for protection against denaturation. Only the intact bongkrekate-protein passes easily through the hydroxyapatite column. Bongkrekate shields the protein in contrast to carboxyatractylate only partially against proteinases present in the crude extract.3. The isolated bongkrekate protein shows the same molecular weights in dodecylsulfate and Triton X-100, the same amino acid composition and the same isoelectric point as the earlier isolated carboxyatractylate-protein complex. It differs by its higher sensitivity against trypsin and thermolysin.4. The identity of both proteins is demonstrated by interconversion of the bongkrekate-protein into the carboxyatractylate-protein. The process requires the catalysis by ADP or ATP, the natural substrates of the protein.5. The formation of the extractable [3H]bongkrekate-protein complex in mitochondria requires the presence of ADP or ATP.6. These data, the immunological studies presented earlier, and the differences in the reactivity of -SH groups of the isolated bongkrekate and carboxyatractylate complexes (to be published) indicate that both proteins represent different conformational states of the translocator protein (m-state and c-state).The isolation of the most active transport carrier of biomembranes in aerobic eukaryotic cell, the mitochondrial ADP/ATP translocator, has been reported by us recently [I -31. The protein was isolated in undenatured form as the carboxyatractylate-protein complex and turned out, in agreement with its eminent role, to be also the most prominent polypeptide of mitochondria and the most abundant membrane protein in heart and probably many other aerobic eukaryotic cells.' A unique feature of this translocator is the existence of two types of tightly binding inhibitors, carboxyatractylate and its homologues and bongkrekate [4,5], the application of which permitted to give a first insight into the molecular mechanism of a translocation process. Thus opposite effects of both ligands on the ADP binding to the carrier were observed: whereas carboxyatractylate removed ADP, bongkrekate appeared to increase the affinity of ADP [6,7]. This effect and a number of other results could be explained by the reorientation mechanism which implies that the translocator exists in two extremes of conformations largely identical with the translocation step [I, 8,9] ; in the 'c-state' where the substrate binding site is turned to the cytosol, and in the 'mstate' where the site is turned to the matrix. Transition between both states occurs only in the presence of ADP or ATP accompanied by the transport of the substrates across the membrane. The c-state can be fixed by binding carboxyatractylate and the m-state by binding bongkrekate.The isolation of the bongkrekate complex of the carri...