... min in the dark. Afteraddition of peptide, the increase in fluorescence, owing to the binding of the dye to intracellular DNA, was measuredat 37 °C in a microplate counter (Wallac 1420 Victor3Ô;Perkin ... Experimentalprocedures]. To obtain insights into the mode of actionunderlying the synergistic activity, we investigated the bactericidal action of the combination of Esc(1–18)and erythromycin, the antibiotic ... found to be 70% of the total within the first 5 min (Fig. 4B).IM permeabilityNext, the effect of the peptide on the E. coli IM wasanalyzed by measuring the intracellular in ux of SYTOX Green...