The plant vacuolar proton pump can be subjected to reversible redox regulation in vitro. The redox-dependent activity change involves disulfide bridge formation not only in Vatp A, as reported for bovine V-ATPase, but also in the stalk subunit Vatp E. Microsomal membranes isolated from barley leaves were analysed for their activity of bafilomycin-sensitive ATP hydrolysis and proton pumping using quinacrine fluorescence quenching in vesicle preparations. ATP hydrolysis and proton pumping activity were inhibited by H2O2. H2O2-deactivated ATPase was reactivated by cysteine and glutathione. The glutathione concentration needed for half maximal reactivation was 1 mmol l-1. The activity loss was accompanied by shifts in electrophoretic mobility of Vatp A and E which were reversed upon reductive reactivation. The redox-dependent shift was also seen with recombinant Vatp E, and was absent following site-directed mutagenesis of either of the two cys residues conserved throughout all plant Vatp E sequences. V-ATPase was also inhibited by oxidized thioredoxin. These results support the hypothesis that tuning of vacuolar ATPase activity can be mediated by redox control depending on the metabolic requirements.