The role of the abundant phenylalanines in the mode of action of the antimicrobial peptide clavanin.

Clavanin A is a special antimicrobial peptide that acts at the level of the membrane via a pH-dependent mechanism. At neutral pH, clavanin disrupts biological and model membranes in a nonspecific manner, causing efflux of large molecules. At mildly acidic conditions, however, the peptide efficiently kills bacteria by permeabilizing their membrane most likely by interacting with proteins involved in proton translocation [Biochemistry 41 (2002) 7529]. Clavanin A is unusually rich in phenylalanines with 5 out of 23 residues, which suggests that these residues are functionally important. A set of mutants, in which all Phe residues are replaced by either Ile, Leu, Trp, or Tyr was used to investigate the role of these amino acids. The antimicrobial activities of the different peptides both at neutral and low pH show that the presence of phenylalanine is not essential nor optimal, as the Trp, Leu, and Ile mutant are equally or more active than the wild-type component. In general, at neutral pH, the biological activities correlate well with the peptides' ability to interact with membrane lipids. Correspondingly, the permeabilization efficiencies of biological and model membranes of the various derivatives were found to be closely related to their ability to adopt alpha-helical structures, and follows the order 5L>5W>5I>5Y>wild type. The results suggest an important role for the Phe residues, in providing the peptide in a balanced manner with sufficient hydrophobicity, and therewith membrane affinity, as well as conformational flexibility.

Clavanin permeabilizes target membranes via two distinctly different pH-dependent mechanisms.

The pH dependence of the antimicrobial and membrane activity of clavanin A, a peptide antibiotic that is rich in histidines and glycines, was analyzed in growth and membrane leakage experiments. Clavanin A more effectively inhibited the growth of the test organism Lactobacillus sake when the pH of the medium was lowered. Whereas the wild-type peptide efficiently released fluorophores from unilamellar vesicles at neutral pH according to a nonspecific permeabilization mechanism, it did not permeabilize model bilayers at low pH. It was therefore suggested that this peptide uses a distinct mode of action under acidic conditions different than that used around neutral pH. However, at low pH, the membrane is still the target for clavanin A, as the peptide collapsed both vital transmembrane proton gradients and ion gradients under these conditions. Clavanin A did not act as a ionophore across phospholipid bilayers, indicating that membrane constituents other than membrane phospholipids are involved in the dissipation of transmembrane ion gradients. Membrane proteins that generate transmembrane ion gradients are suggested to be the targets for clavanin A at low pH. In addition to the histidines, the three glycine residues of clavanin A are shown to play an important role in the specific mode of interaction with these membrane targets. These residues may induce a flexible hydrophobic conformation that allows the peptide to exert different membrane activities. This study demonstrates that clavanin A is a special membrane-active peptide that has access to two markedly distinct pH-dependent modes of actions.

Aerobic sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli binds to the cytoplasmic membrane through an amphipathic alpha-helix.

sn-Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GlpD) from Escherichia coli is a peripheral membrane enzyme involved in respiratory electron transfer. For it to display its enzymic activity, binding to the inner membrane is required. The way the enzyme interacts with the membrane and how this controls activity has not been elucidated. In the present study we provide evidence for direct protein-lipid interaction. Using the monolayer technique, we observed insertion of GlpD into lipid monolayers with a clear preference for anionic phospholipids. GlpD variants with point mutations in their predicted amphipathic helices showed a decreased ability to penetrate anionic phospholipid monolayers. From these data we propose that membrane binding of GlpD occurs by insertion of an amphipathic helix into the acyl-chain region of lipids mediated by negatively charged phospholipids.

Domain formation in phosphatidylcholine bilayers containing transmembrane peptides: specific effects of flanking residues.

Lateral segregation in biological membranes leads to the formation of domains. We have studied the lateral segregation in gel-state model membranes consisting of supported dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers with various model peptides, using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The model peptides are derivatives of the Ac-GWWL(AL)(n)WWA-Etn peptides (the so-called WALP peptides) and have instead of tryptophans, other flanking residues. In a previous study, we found that WALP peptides induce the formation of extremely ordered, striated domains in supported DPPC bilayers. In this study, we show that WALP analogues with other uncharged residues (tyrosine, phenylalanine, or histidine at pH 9) can also induce the formation of striated domains, albeit in some cases with a slightly different pattern. The WALP analogues with positively charged residues (lysine or histidine at low pH) cannot induce striated domains and give rise to a completely different morphology: they induce irregularly shaped depressions in DPPC bilayers. The latter morphology is explained by the fact that the positively charged peptides repel each other and hence are not able to form striated domains in which they would have to be in close vicinity. They would reside in disordered, fluidlike lipid areas, appearing below the level of the ordered gel-state lipid domains, which would account for the irregularly shaped depressions.