Mechanisms of antimicrobial peptide action: Studies of indolicidin assembly at model membrane interfaces by in situ atomic force microscopy

We report here on an in situ atomic force microscopy study of the interaction of indolicidin, a tryptophan-rich antimicrobial peptide, with phase-segregated zwitterionic DOPC/DSPC supported planar bilayers. By varying the peptide concentration and bilayer composition through the inclusion of anionic lipids (DOPG or DSPG), we found that indolicidin interacts with these model membranes in one of two concentration-dependent manners. At low peptide concentrations, indolicidin forms an amorphous layer on the fluid domains when these domains contain anionic lipids. At high peptide concentrations, indolicidin appears to initiate a lowering of the gel-phase domains independent of the presence of an anionic lipid. Similar studies performed using membrane-raft mimetic bilayers comprising 30 mol% cholesterol/1:1 DOPC/egg sphingomyelin revealed that indolicidin does not form a carpet-like layer on the zwitterionic DOPC domains at low peptide concentrations and does not induce membrane lowering of the liquid-ordered sphingomyelin/cholesterol-rich domains at high peptide concentration. Simultaneous AFM–confocal microscopy imaging did however reveal that indolicidin preferentially inserts into the fluid-phase DOPC domains. These data suggest that the indolicidin–membrane association is influenced greatly by specific electrostatic interactions, lipid fluidity, and peptide concentration. These insights provide a glimpse into the mechanism of the membrane selectivity of antibacterial peptides and suggest a powerful correlated approach for characterizing peptide–membrane interactions.