Thermodynamic consideration of the ion transporting antibiotics

Abstract

A model transport system has been constructed in which nigericin or valinomycin and related antibiotics will catalyze the translocation of ions between aqueous solutions. Equations for the equilibrium distributions of ions have been derived from the Gibbs-Duhem equation, and are in reasonable agreement with the observed distributions. The observed transport behavior is consistent with the molecular structure of the antibiotics from X-ray crystallography. © 1970.