Question

Transport antibiotics generally make membranes particularly permeable to certain charged particles. There are several types of transport antibiotics including carriers and channel-forming antibiotics. The conductance (permeability) of a biological membrane containing a carrier antibiotic decreases abruptly when the temperature is lowered from 37^oC to 25^oC. In contrast, there is little change in conductance in the same membrane when it contains a channel-forming antibiotic. Why? (HINT: Carrier antibiotics shuttle ions from one side of the membrane to another and rely on diffusion through the bilayer. Channel-forming antibiotics, on the other hand, create an aqueous pore that traverses the bilayer allowing ions to cross the membrane via the aqueous channel.)

Answer 1