Recent Advances in the High Resolution Structures of Bacterial Channels: Gramicidin A

Abstract

Gramicidin is a polypeptide antibiotic which forms dimeric channels specific for the transport of monovalent cations across membranes. It adopts several different conformations, most notably double helical (pore) and helical dimer (channels) forms, which have very different structural and functional characteristics. This review focuses on recent high resolution structure determinations of both the pore and channel forms of the molecule by X-ray crystallographic and/or NMR spectroscopic techniques. It discusses the structural consequences of binding ions and the location of ion binding sites and how the structures are related to the conductance properties of the molecule. This relatively simple molecule is probably the best characterized ion channel (both structurally and functionally) and has, to date, been the principal proving-ground for many of our ideas about the molecular nature of ion conduction in membranes.