Studies of the conductance changes induced in bimolecular lipid membranes by alamethicin.

The addition of alamethicin to lecithin bilayers results in both voltage-dependent and voltage-independent conductance changes. In the voltage-dependent region, the slope of the conductance-voltage curve varies with the charge of the cation present in the aqueous phase. It may be shown that these effects may be accounted for by a kinetic model which incorporates the following suppositions: (1) alamethicin molecules are adsorbed at the membrane-water interface; (2) the effect of the potential is to redistribute alamethicin-cation complexes between the two surfaces of the bilayer; (3) conduction through the bilayer follows the surface interaction of approximately six alamethicin molecules; and (4) there is an assymetry in the rate constants for corresponding transitions on opposite sides of the bilayer.The effects of alamethicin are found to be approximately the same at neutral and low pH and are unchanged when bilayers are formed from phosphatidyl serine rather than lecithin. These findings are discussed in relation to current hypotheses of the molecular nature of the conduction mechanism.