Alamethicin in bicelles: orientation, aggregation, and bilayer modification as a function of peptide concentration

Alamethicin is a 19-amino-acid residue hydrophobic peptide of the peptaibol family that has been the object of numerous studies for its ability to produce voltage-dependent ion channels in membranes. In this work, for the first time electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy was applied to study the interaction of alamethicin with oriented bicelles. We highlighted the effects of increasing peptide concentrations on both the peptide and the membrane in identical conditions, by adopting a twofold spin labeling approach, placing a nitroxide moiety either on the peptide or on the phospholipids. The employment of bicelles affords additional spectral resolution, thanks to the formation of a macroscopically oriented phase that allows to gain information on alamethicin orientation and dynamics. Moreover, the high viscosity of the bicellar solution permits the investigation of the peptide aggregation properties at physiological temperature. We observed that, at 35°C, alamethicin adopts a transmembrane orientation with the peptide axis forming an average angle of 25° with respect to the bilayer normal. Moreover, alamethicin maintains its dynamics and helical tilt constant at all concentrations studied. On the other hand, by increasing the peptide concentration, the bilayer experiences an exponential decrease of the order parameter, but does not undergo micellization, even at the highest peptide to lipid ratio studied (1:20). Finally, the aggregation of the peptide at physiological temperature shows that the peptide is monomeric at peptide to lipid ratios lower than 1:50, then it aggregates with a rather broad distribution in the number of peptides (from 6 to 8) per oligomer.