Probing the Energy Landscape of Activation Gating of the Bacterial Potassium Channel KcsA
Figure 6
Lipid interactions of TM2 helices during activation gate opening.
A) Average number of H-bonds between H-bond forming residues (W113 and R117) of the C-terminal TM2 helices and lipid head groups was measured over time. B) Average number of H-bonds of R117 with lipids. C) Average number of H-bonds of W113 with lipids. D) Representation of one SU in the closed (light blue) and open (marine blue) conformation with lipids. H-bond forming residues W113 and R117 are shown as yellow sticks. Lipids are depicted as gray lines while phosphate groups are shown as orange spheres. Dashed black lines represent H-bonds.