Summary
A triton X100 extract of mitochondria, isolated from a wall-less mutant ofNeurospora crassa, can be used to insert channels into planar lipid bilayers. These channels have the same properties as the VDAC channels previously reported (Colombini, 1979,Nature (London) 279:643) in the outer membrane of rat liver mitochondria. When large multiwalled liposomes are produced from mixtures of phospholipids andN. crassa mitochondrial membrane material, these liposomes are now permeable to nonelectrolytes up to the size of polyethylene glycol of 3400 mol wt. This yields an estimated radius for the channels inserted into the liposomes of 20 Å.
It is proposed that VDAC is the channel which allows the outer mitochondrial membrane to be permeable to small molecules and that this channel has a pore size of 20 Å in radius.
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Colombini, M. Pore size and properties of channels from mitochondria isolated fromNeurospora crassa . J. Membrain Biol. 53, 79–84 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01870576
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01870576