Figure 5.

Rupture events of planar membranes caused by complexes of either essentially irreversibly bound recombinant (a) LF:PA₆₃ channel and (b) EF:PA₆₃ channel. Membrane rupture was also achieved by exposing the channel to the cis addition of the polycations (c) 28 kg/mol poly-L-lysine, and (d) 56 kg/mol poly(allylamine hydrocholoride). Chirality and cis/trans addition did not inhibit the membrane rupture capability (not shown). The membranes rupture events are denoted by (†). The solutions on either side of the membrane contained 100 mM KCl and 5 mM MES at pH 7.2. Membrane rupture with irreversibly bound recombinant proteins was also achievable at pH_c|t 5.5|7.2 (not shown). The applied potential was |V| = 120 mV for recombinant proteins or |V| = 50 mV for the polycations.