Interaction of synthetic signal sequence fragments with model membranes.

Peptide fragments corresponding to the signal sequence of chicken lysozyme, labelled with the fluorescent 5-dimethylaminonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl (dansyl) group have been synthesized. The emission characteristics and fluorescence polarization of the dansyl group have been used to study the interaction of signal sequence fragments with liposomes. The peptide fragments bind to liposomes and are associated with the hydrophobic core of the bilayer.