NMR methods for studying membrane-active antimicrobial peptides

NMR is a versatile tool for studying interactions between antimicrobial peptides and lipid membranes. Different approaches using both liquid state and solid state NMR are outlined here, with an emphasis on solid state NMR methods, to study the structures of antimicrobial peptides in lipid bilayers as well as the effect of these peptides on model membranes. Different NMR techniques for observing both peptides and lipids are explained, including H-2, C-13, N-15, and F-19 labels, or natural abundance H-1, C-13, or P-31. Previous studies in the field are extensively reviewed in easily accessible tables. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.