Controlled Gating of Lysenin Pores

Abstract

Lysenin forms unitary large conductance pores in artificial bilayer membranes containing sphingomyelin. A population of lysenin pores inserted into such a bilayer membrane exhibited a dynamic negative conductance region, as predicted by a simple two-state model for voltage-gated channels. The recorded I-V curves demonstrated that lysenin pores inserted into the bilayer are uniformly oriented. Additionally, the transition between the two-states was affected by changes in the monovalent ion concentration and pH, pointing towards an electrostatic interaction governing the gating mechanism.