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Ion channels from the Bacillus subtilis plasma membrane incorporated into planar lipid bilayers
Author(s) -
Alcayaga Carmen,
Venegas Rodrigo,
Carrasco Alicia,
Wolff Daniel
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(92)81112-y
Subject(s) - bacillus subtilis , gating , biophysics , chemistry , membrane , kinetics , lipid bilayer , vesicle , ion channel , ion , plasma , fusion , lipid bilayer fusion , membrane potential , chemical physics , crystallography , biochemistry , biology , bacteria , physics , genetics , receptor , linguistics , organic chemistry , philosophy , quantum mechanics
Fusion of Bacillus subtilis plasma membrane vesicles with planar lipid bilayers induced the appearance of discrete current fluctuations characteristic of ion channels. These channels showed a wide range of conductances and kinetic behaviors. In 300 mM KCl, their conductances ranged from a few hundreds of pS to more than 1 nS, and most of them exhibited several sub‐states. The channels poorly discriminated between small univalent anions and cations. Some of them showed voltage dependence and most of them presented a complex gating kinetics. The results are consistent with the hypothesis of the presence in the B. subtilis plasma membrane of pores composed of subunits that function cooperatively.