Identification of the Outer Membrane Porin of Thermus thermophilus HB8: the Channel-Forming Complex Has an Unusually High Molecular Mass and an Extremely Large Single-Channel Conductance

The outer membrane of the thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus was isolated using sucrose step gradient centrifugation. Its detergent extracts contained an ion-permeable channel with an extremely high single-channel conductance of 20 nS in 1 M KCl. The channel protein was purified by preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacylamide gel electrophoresis. It has a high molecular mass of 185 kDa, and its channel-forming ability resists boiling in SDS for 10 min.