The carmine spider mite, Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval), is a serious phytophagous mite damaging importantcrops and can rapidly develop resistance to acaricides. Mitochondrial ATP synthase (F1F0 ATP synthase)is an important target site of acaricides. The role of ATP synthase in acaricide resistance remains unclear at themolecular level. In this study, twelve full-length cDNAs of ATP synthase genes were cloned and characterizedfrom T. cinnabarinus and their expression levels were determined for both progargite-resistant and susceptiblestrains. The effect of propargite exposure on gene expression was also evaluated. Analyses of gene expressionrevealed that TcATPsynU-2, TcATPsynF0-2 and TcATPsynF0-4 were significantly down-regulated in the progargite-resistant strain. TcATPsynF0-2 and TcATPsynF0-4 had a strong response to progargite exposure. Theresults suggest that lower levels of TcATPsynU-2, TcATPsynF0-2 and TcATPsynF0-4 expression might be related topropargite-resistance observed in the resistant T. cinnabarinus. This is the first attempt to identify specific ATPasegenes involved in propargite resistance in T. cinnabarinus.