Porins and LPS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (January 2008) |
This page has few or no links to other articles. (Tagged since January 2008). You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. For some link suggestions, you can try Can We Link It tool. (You can help!) |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Porin (protein). (Discuss) |
Porins - the phospholipids that compose the outer membrane give it the same semi-permeable characteristics as the Cytoplasmic membrane.
- to transport medium-sized or charged molecules across, the molecules move through a porin, a water-filled channel or pore.
- Porins are chemically selective – transport only one group of molecules, or may be specific for one molecule.
- for antibiotics to be effective against a bacterium, it must pass through the outer membrane, using through a porin.
- bacteria can develop resistance to the antibiotic by mutating the gene that encodes the porin – the antibiotic is then excluded from passing through the outer membrane.
LPS - LPS has both lipid and polysaccharide components.
- the “core polysaccharide” contains “KDO” – a highly negatively charged sugar. The outer membrane needs to be stabilized with Ca or Mg ions.