Membrane Association and Pore Formation by Alpha-Helical Peptides

Membrane-active peptides exhibit antimicrobial, channel-forming and transport activities and have therefore early on been interesting targets for biophysical investigations. When the peptide-lipid interactions are studied a dynamic view emerges in which the peptides change conformation upon membrane insertion, can adopt a variety of topologies and change the macroscopic phase properties of the membrane locally or globally. Interestingly several proteins have been identified that also interact with the membrane in a dynamic fashion and where the lessons learned from peptides may add to our understanding of the ways these proteins function.