The
antibiotic gramicidin A is an open chain
polypeptide and manages to interfere with the
ionic
permeability of cell
membranes. In this case it forms a tube in the
lipid bilayer (the other one,
valinomycin, uses the carrier mechanism). Net effect is, that the
mitochondria use the energy generated by
electron transport to accumulate K
+ instead of making energy in the form of
ATP. So essentially it robs away the required energy for the cell to survive.
To give you an idea about the
effectivity of a bit of gramicidin: with a concentration of 10
-9 M, the
conductance of the membrane to K
+ increases more than 10
4-fold.
O H
\\ /
C O
| ||
HN-Val-Gly-Ala-Leu-Ala-Val-Val-Val-Trp-Leu-Trp-Leu-Trp-Leu-Trp-C
|
N-H
|
CH2
|
CH2
|
OH
Val = valine Trp = tryptophan
Gly = glycine Leu = leucine
Ala = alanine