Premium
Persister‐promoting bacterial toxin TisB produces anion‐selective pores in planar lipid bilayers
Author(s) -
Gurnev Philip A.,
Ortenberg Ron,
Dörr Tobias,
Lewis Kim,
Bezrukov Sergey M.
Publication year - 2012
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/j.febslet.2012.06.021
Subject(s) - chemistry , ethylene glycol , selectivity , biophysics , membrane , peptide , lipid bilayer , ion , ion channel , stereochemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , biology , receptor , catalysis
We studied membrane activity of the bacterial peptide TisB involved in persister cell formation. TisB and its analogs form multi‐state ion‐conductive pores in planar lipid bilayers with all states displaying similar anionic selectivity. TisB analogs differing by ±1 elementary charges show corresponding changes in selectivity. Probing TisB pores with poly‐(ethylene glycol)s reveals only restricted partitioning even for the smallest polymers, suggesting that the pores are characterized by a relatively small diameter. These findings allow us to suggest that TisB forms clusters of narrow pores that are essential for its mechanism of action.