Residue-Specialized Membrane Poration Kinetics of Melittin and Its Variants: Insight from Mechanistic Landscapes *

Zhi-Xiong Deng,Jing-Liang Li,Bing Yuan,Kai Yang

Fig. 3 (Color online) Formation process of a T-pore under the action of MelP5 at $P/L$=1/43. (a) Snapshots showing the interaction states, "S", "U" and "T", during the MelP5-membrane interaction process. The peptide which finally penetrate the membrane is tracked and colored red (with the kink residue T11 marked green), while the others are grey. (b), (c) Time-dependent evolution of the z-position (b) or tilt angle (c) of key residues, including G1 and Q26 at the two termini, T11 in the kink region, and the only charged residue K7 in helix-1. The z-position of lipid heads (PO$_4$ groups) of the two leaflets are shown as references of the membrane surfaces (solid orange and purple lines).