The antimicrobial peptide Polybia-MP1 differentiates membranes with the hopanoid, diplopterol from those with cholesterol

ALVARES, DAYANE S.; MONTI, MARIELA R.; RUGGIERO NETO, JOÃO; WILKE, NATALIA

BBA Advances

Elsevier

Año: 2021 vol. 1 p. 1 - 1

2667-1603

olybia-MP1 is an antimicrobial peptide that shows a decreased activity in membranes with cholesterol (CHO). Since it is now accepted that hopanoids act as sterol-surrogates in some sterol-lacking bacteria, we here inquire about the impact of Polybia-MP1 on membranes containing the hopanoid diplopterol (DP) in comparison to mem- branes with CHO. We found that, despite the properties induced on lipid membranes by DP are similar to those induced by CHO, the effect of Polybia-MP1 on membranes with CHO or DP was significantly different. DP did not prevent dye release from LUVs, nor the insertion of Polybia-MP1 into monolayers, and peptide-membrane affin- ity was higher for those with DP than with CHO. Zeta potentials ( 𝜁) for DP-containing LUVs showed a complex behavior at increasing peptide concentration. The effect of the peptide on membrane elasticity, investigated by nanotube retraction experiments, showed that peptide addition softened all membrane compositions, but mem- brane