Hsp104 is a large AAA+ molecular machine that can rescue proteins trapped in amorphous aggregates and stable amyloids by drawing substrate protein into its central pore. Recent cryo-EM studies image Hsp104 at high resolution. We used hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry analysis (HX MS) to resolve and characterize all of the functionally active and inactive elements of Hsp104, many not accessible to cryo-EM. At a global level, HX MS confirms the one noncanonical interprotomer interface in the Hsp104 hexamer as a marker for the spiraled conformation revealed by cryo-EM and measures its fast conformational cycling under ATP hydrolysis. Other findings enable reinterpretation of the apparent variability of the regulatory middle domain. With respect to detailed mechanism, HX MS determines the response of each Hsp104 structural element to the different bound adenosine nucleotides (ADP, ATP, AMPPNP, and ATPγS). They are distinguished most sensitively by the two Walker A nucleotide-binding segments. Binding of the ATP analog, ATPγS, tightly restructures the Walker A segments and drives the global open-to-closed/extended transition. The global transition carries part of the ATP/ATPγS-binding energy to the somewhat distant central pore. The pore constricts and the tyrosine and other pore-related loops become more tightly structured, which seems to reflect the energy-requiring directional pull that translocates the substrate protein. ATP hydrolysis to ADP allows Hsp104 to relax back to its lowest energy open state ready to restart the cycle.Hsp104 | hydrogen exchange | mass spectrometry | HX MS | HDX MS W e report an initial hydrogen exchange study of Hsp104, a large homohexameric member of the AAA+ superfamily (6 × 908 amino acid residues), in its various functional states. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hsp104 controls the prionogenesis and dissolution of the Sup35 translation termination factor (1). Hsp104 is interesting more generally for its ability to rescue aggregated proteins and even stably structured amyloids by mobilizing the driving energy of favorable ATP binding and hydrolysis to forcefully unfold proteins by threading them into or through its narrow central channel (1-5).Earlier low-resolution structures of Hsp104 and its bacterial homolog ClpB obtained by negative staining or cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) showed symmetric flat hexamers (6-10). Recent higher resolution cryo-EM studies reveal more detailed global and fine-scale structural features, their dependence on the adenosine nucleotide that is bound, and enable mechanistic inferences (11,12). Thus, we now know what Hsp104 looks like, but the fundamental mechanisms and principles that determine how it works have so far been out of reach. The same is true for a rapidly growing number of other large protein molecules.Many methods have been used to measure changes and their connecting structural paths in allosteric systems, but there has been no way to connect site-resolved changes with site-resolved energetics and thus establish the importance and role of...