Collective behaviour of crown channels.

Collective behaviour of a crown ether channel, bis[(benzo-15-crown-5)-15-yl methyl] pimelate, in a planar lipid bilayer membrane has been studied through electrophysiological methods. A characteristic feature of these channels is their sequential opening, indicated by a uniform stepwise increase in the multi-channel current. The experimental results show that there are three modes of relaxation, of which the slowest one is attributed to the channel–channel interaction. The latter varies with the number of channels incorporated in the bilayer membrane, leading to the interpretation that crown channels behave cooperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]