Generalised bilayer perturbation from peptide helix dimerisation at membrane surfaces: vesicle lysis induced by...

The effects of covalent dimerisation of melittin by disulphide formation in cysteine-substitution analogues, (melittin K23C)2 and (melittin K23Q,Q25C)2, on the kinetics of pore formation in phosphatidylcholine small unilamellar vesicles was measured under low ionic strength conditions. The initial rate of melittin-induced pore formation increased with the square of the peptide concentration, whereas both disulphide-dimerised melittin analogues showed a first-order dependence of pore formation rates on peptide concentration. These results indicate that peptide dimerisation is rate-limiting for pore formation under these conditions. A model for a generalised bilayer perturbation resulting from the self-association of a pair of peptide helices at the membrane surface is proposed which may have implications for a number of biological processes that involve the interaction of helical polypeptides with membranes.