Several homeodomains and homeodomain-containing proteins enter live cells through a receptor- and energy-independent mechanism. Translocation through biological membranes is conferred by the third alpha-helix of the homeodomain, also known as Penetratin. Biophysical studies demonstrate that entry of Penetratin into cells requires its binding to surface lipids but that binding and translocation are differentially affected by modifications of some physico-chemical properties of the peptide, like helical amphipathicity or net charge. This suggests that the plasma membrane lipid composition affects the internalization of Penetratin and that internalization requires both lipid binding and other specific properties. Using a phase transfer assay, it is shown that negatively charged lipids promote the transfer of Penetratin from a hydrophilic into a hydrophobic environment, probably through charge neutralization. Accordingly, transfer into a hydrophobic milieu can also be obtained in the absence of negatively charged lipids, by the addition of DNA oligonucleotides. Strikingly, phase transfer by charge neutralization was also observed with a variant peptide of same charge and hydrophobicity in which the tryptophan at position 6 was replaced by a phenylalanine. However, Penetratin, but not its mutant version, is internalized by live cells. This underscores that charge neutralization and phase transfer represent only a first step in the internalization process and that further crossing of a biological membrane necessitates the critical tryptophan residue at position 6.

Mixed monolayers of the surface-active lipopeptide surfactin-C(15) and various lipids differing by their chain length (DMPC, DPPC, DSPC) and polar headgroup (DPPC, DPPE, DPPS) were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in combination with molecular modeling (Hypermatrix procedure) and surface pressure-area isotherms. In the presence of surfactin, AFM topographic images showed phase separation for each surfactin-phospholipid system except for surfactin-DMPC, which was in good agreement with compression isotherms. On the basis of domain shape and line tension theory, we conclude that the miscibility between surfactin and phospholipids is higher for shorter chain lengths (DMPC>DPPC>DSPC) and that the polar headgroup of phospholipids influences the miscibility of surfactin in the order DPPC>DPPE>DPPS. Molecular modeling data show that mixing surfactin and DPPC has a destabilizing effect on DPPC monolayer while it has a stabilizing effect towards DPPE and DPPS molecular interactions. Our results provide valuable information on the activity mechanism of surfactin and may be useful for the design of surfactin delivery systems.

Modeling analysis was used to understand the molecular mechanisms of the biological activities of surfactin, in particular, its hemolytic activity. This study highlights the importance of the fatty acid chain hydrophobicity of the surfactin on its activities, the C15 homologue being the most active. This is related to its self-association capacity. The detergent effect is the predominant mechanism involved in the hemolytic activity. A two-step mechanism is suggested, depending on the surfactin concentration. Other mechanisms (cationic channel, mobile carrier) can also be involved in particular conditions.

No abstract

Pex are created to extract numeric and string descriptions of protein structures from PDB files. This concerns covalent bond lengths and angles, secondary structures, residues in interaction, H-bond lengths and geometry, etc. Several kinds of Pex are generated: (1) general feature (GF-Pex); (2) H-bond (H-Pex); and (3) accessible surface (AS-Pex) and force potential (FP-Pex). We describe the general principles of Pex and detail the GF-Pex files. Using the GF-Pex of 131 proteins, we analyze the mean residue frequencies, the straight phi/psi distribution and the major kinds of secondary structures in proteins. Thomas et al. (this issue) analyzes the main chain H-bonds in those proteins. The GF-Pex and H-Pex files of the 131 proteins can be downloaded from the CBMN site (http://www.fsagx.ac.be/bp/). Proteins 2001;43:28-36.