Figure 3. ECP and I13A mutant bind to the surface of bacteria and membranes.

(A) E. coli bacteria cells stained with Hoechst (blue signal) were incubated with 5 µM of either wtECP or I13A mutant (both labeled with Alexa Fluor 488; green signal) for 4 h and visualized by confocal microscopy. In all experiments cell cultures were grown at exponential phase (OD₆₀₀ = 0.2) and incubated with proteins in 10 mM sodium phosphate buffer, 100 mM NaCl, pH 7.4. (B) 500 µl of 200 µM LUV liposomes stained with DiI (red signal) were incubated with 5 µM of either wtECP or I13A mutant (both labeled with Alexa Fluor 488; green signal) for 4 h and visualized using a Leica SP2 confocal microscope. Scale bars are 5 µm length in all images and insight captions. Images depicted are representative from two independent experiments.