Main description:

The Symposium on "Transport through Membranes : Carriers. Channels and Pumps" Inaugurates the third decade of the Jerusalem Symposia. It enlarges substantially their conceptual scope by Introducing a new subject not treated there previously. In fact. It Is a topic particularly well suited for the general object of these International meetings which Is to reassemble In an exhaustive Interdisciplinary discussion chemists. physicists and biologists. theoreticians and experimentalists. The main theme of the Symposium was the presentation and evaluation of the most up-to-date data on the structural and dynamic aspects of transport through membranes within the three main pathways: through carriers. channels and pumps. This goal was fully achieved thanks to the participation of a most outstanding assembly of world's experts In the field. We wish to thank Madame Pullman. the real organizer and mainspring of this meeting. for having composed a most exciting and excellent program and for carrying It out successfully. As the twenty preceding ones this Symposium was held under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was sponsored by the Instltut de Blologle Physlco Chimique. Fondatlon Edmond de Rothschild of Paris. We wish to express once again our gratitude to the Baron Edmond de Rothschild for his constant and generous support which makes this continuous endeavour possible.

Contents:

Dynamic Views of Macrocyclic Receptors: Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Normal Modes Analysis.- Ion Selectivity and Molecular Structure of Binding Sites and Channels in Icosahedral Viruses.- The Molecular Packing of Porin, a Trimeric Membrane Protein in Tetragonal Crystal Form.- Helical Structures; Artificial Solutions for Ion Transport.- Modulation of Ionophore Properties by Chemical Modifications of Synthetic Alamethicin Analogues.- Mutagenesis of the COOH-Terminal Channel Domain of Colicin El Affecting the Ion Selectivity of the Channel.- The Structure and Dynamics of Membrane Spanning Helices by High Resolution NMR and Molecular Dynamics.- The Gramicidin Pore: Crystal Structure of a Gramicidin/Cesium Chloride Complex.- Do Amino Acid Substitutions Alter the Structure of Gramicidin Channels? Chemistry at the Single Molecule Level.- How Do Amino Acid Substitutions Alter the Function of Gramicidin Channels?.- Linear Gramicidins : Influence of the Nature of the Aromatic Side Chains on the Channel Conductance.- The Gramicidin a Channel : Left Versus Right-Handed Helix.- Guanidinium as a Probe of the Gramicidin Channel Interior.- Thermodynamics of Cation Binding and Transport by Gramidicin.- Structure and Dynamics of Water on Membrane Surfaces and in Narrow Transmembrane Channels - Molecular Dynamics Simulations.- A Molecular Dynamics Study of Cesium Ion motion in a Gramicidin-Like Channel. Structural and Energetic Implications.- Radiolysis and Photolysis of Ion Channels Formed by Gramicidin A.- Influence of Gramicidin on Lipid Organization and Dynamics in Membranes.- Side Chain and Backbone Conformation of Gramicidin A in Lipid Bilayer Membranes.- Ionic Permeability and the Open Channel Structure of the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor.- Structural Organization of the Acetylcholine Receptor, a Ligand-Gated Ion Channel.- Theoretical Study of Potential Ion-Channels Formed by Bundles Of ?-Helices. Partial Modelling of the Acetylcholine Receptor Channel.- Properties and Problems of the Helix-M2 model of the Acetylcholine Receptor-Ion Channel.- Structural Models for Membrane Insertion and Channel Formation by Antiparallel ?-Helical Membrane Peptides.- Bacteriorhodopsin in and Out of Shape: Experimental Evidence in Favor of a Two-Stage Mechanism for Integral Membrane Protein Folding.- Observation of "N" in the Photocycle of Bacteriorhodopsin: A Satisfactory Confirmation of Theoretical Predictions.- Hydrogen - Bonded Systems as Proton Wires Formed by Side Chains of Proteins and by Side Chains and Phosphates.- Characterization of Halorhodopsin Reconstituted in Asolectin Liposomes.- Mechanism of Chloride Transport by Halorhodopsin.- Mechanism of Anion Transport Through the Phosphate-Starvation-Inducible Outer Membrane Protein P of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa.- Charge Translocation in a Single Turnover of the Na, K-Pump.- Carrier Kinetics Show How the Sodium Pump uses ATP to Render Pumping of Both Na and K Effective, and Suggests a Model for the ATP Synthetases.- Single-Channel and Oligo-Channel Recordings: Thermodynamic Information Obtainable From Electric Fluctuations Produced by a Small Number of Ionic Channels.- The Crystal Structure of the Photosynthetic Reaction Center from Rhodopseudomonas Viridis.- Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Primary Processes in the Photosynthetic Reaction Center of Rhodopseumones Viridis.- Pump and Displacement Currents of Reconstituted ATP Synthase on Black Lipid Membranes.- Ion-Binding Properties of Nonhomogenous Biological Membrane Structures.