Protonation dynamics of the alpha-toxin ion channel from spectral analysis of pH-dependent current fluctuations

To probe protonation dynamics inside the fully open alpha-toxin ion channel, we measured the pH-dependent fluctuations in its current. In the presence of 1 M NaCl dissolved in H2O and positive applied potentials (from the side of protein addition), the low frequency noise exhibited a single well defined peak between pH 4.5 and 7.5. A simple model in which the current is assumed to change by equal amounts upon the reversible protonation of each of N identical ionizable residues inside the channel describes the data well. These results, and the frequency dependence of the spectral density at higher frequencies, allow us to evaluate the effective pK = 5.5, as well as the rate constants for the reversible protonation reactions: kon = 8 x 10(9) M-1 s-1 and koff = 2.5 x 10(4) s-1. The estimate of kon is only slightly less than the diffusion-limited values measured by others for protonation reactions for free carboxyl or imidazole residues. Substitution of H2O by D2O caused a 3.8-fold decrease in the dissociation rate constant and shifted the pK to 6.0. The decrease in the ionization rate constants caused by H2O/D2O substitution permitted the reliable measurement of the characteristic relaxation time over a wide range of D+ concentrations and voltages. The dependence of the relaxation time on D+ concentration strongly supports the first order reaction model. The voltage dependence of the low frequency spectral density suggests that the protonation dynamics are virtually insensitive to the applied potential while the rate-limiting barriers for NaCl transport are voltage dependent. The number of ionizable residues deduced from experiments in H2O (N = 4.2) and D2O (N = 4.1) is in good agreement.