Peptide–lipid interactions of the β-hairpin antimicrobial peptide tachyplesin and its linear derivatives from solid-state NMR

The peptide–lipid interaction of a β-hairpin antimicrobial peptide tachyplesin-1 (TP-1) and its linear derivatives are investigated to gain insight into the mechanism of antimicrobial activity. 31P and 2H NMR spectra of uniaxially aligned lipid bilayers of varying compositions and peptide concentrations are measured to determine the peptide-induced orientational disorder and the selectivity of membrane disruption by tachyplesin. The disulfide-linked TP-1 does not cause any disorder to the neutral POPC and POPC/cholesterol membranes but induces both micellization and random orientation distribution to the anionic POPE/POPG membranes above a peptide concentration of 2%. In comparison, the anionic POPC/POPG bilayer is completely unaffected by TP-1 binding, suggesting that TP-1 induces negative curvature strain to the membrane as a mechanism of its action. Removal of the disulfide bonds by substitution of Cys residues with Tyr and Ala abolishes the micellization of POPE/POPG bilayers but retains the orientation randomization of both POPC/POPG and POPE/POPG bilayers. Thus, linear tachyplesin derivatives have membrane disruptive abilities but use different mechanisms from the wild-type peptide. The different lipid–peptide interactions between TP-1 and other β-hairpin antimicrobial peptides are discussed in terms of their molecular structure.