Datensatz

Zusammenfassung

When two black lipid bilayers are brought into close contact in the presence of divalent ions they interact, a process termed “fusion”. The resulting structure is suggested to be another bilayer with a multitude of intercalated solvent lenses and micelles. This is corroborated by the observation that gramicidin A can induce unit conductance increments with parameters identical to those formed in normal planar black lipid bilayers. Moreover, the fused membrane has a specific capacitance which amounts to 75–80% of the value found with normal membranes. Asymmetric membranes can be produced by the fusion of two membranes of different lipid composition.