The folding of many proteins depends on the assistance of chaperonins like GroEL and GroES and involves the enclosure of substrate proteins inside an internal cavity that is formed when GroES binds to GroEL in the presence of ATP. Precisely how assembly of the GroEL-GroES complex leads to substrate protein encapsulation and folding remains poorly understood. Here we use a chemically modified mutant of GroEL (EL43Py) to uncouple substrate protein encapsulation from release and folding. Although EL43Py correctly initiates a substrate protein encapsulation reaction, this mutant stalls in an intermediate allosteric state of the GroEL ring, which is essential for both GroES binding and the forced unfolding of the substrate protein. This intermediate conformation of the GroEL ring possesses simultaneously high affinity for both GroES and non-native substrate protein, thus preventing escape of the substrate protein while GroES binding and substrate protein compaction takes place. Strikingly, assembly of the folding-active GroELGroES complex appears to involve a strategic delay in ATP hydrolysis that is coupled to disassembly of the old, ADP-bound GroEL-GroES complex on the opposite ring.To fold, many essential proteins require the assistance of specialized molecular chaperones known as chaperonins (1). The GroELS chaperonin system of Escherichia coli is one of the best-studied examples of the chaperonin class of molecular chaperones (for review see Refs. 2,3). GroEL is a tetradecamer of fourteen identical 57-kDa subunits arranged into two heptameric rings (4). Each ring contains a large, central, open cavity, and the two rings are stacked back-to-back to create a double toroid. Maximally efficient folding of most proteins that possess a strict dependence on GroEL (so-called stringent substrate proteins) requires that they be encapsulated within a closed chamber formed by a GroEL ring and the separate cochaperonin GroES (5-8). Binding of the GroES lid over a captured substrate protein seals the GroEL cavity and releases the non-native protein into the confined space of the GroEL-GroES chamber (the cis complex). Protein folding proceeds in this isolated space for several seconds until the GroEL-GroES complex is dismantled and the substrate protein, folded or not, is ejected into free solution (5-10).For stringent substrate proteins, ATP is required for the assembly of the GroEL-GroES cis complex and the associated steps of substrate protein encapsulation, release and folding (5, 11-13). Binding of ATP to a GroEL ring drives a large-scale rearrangement of the GroEL subunits, resulting in a dramatic elevation and rotation of the GroEL apical domains away from the central cavity (14,15). GroES binding and substrate folding within the cis complex depend upon these ATP-induced structural rearrangements (5,16,17). However, despite a wealth of structural and biophysical information, precisely how assembly of the GroEL-GroES cis complex leads to substrate protein encapsulation, release, and folding remains poorly understood. Bec...