 Colicins exhibit a '1-hit killing kinetic' which does not necessarily mean a single molecule is sufficient to kill, but certainly that it only takes a small number.In his 1969 Nobel Laureate speech, Salvador E. Luria speculated that colicins could only be this toxic by causing a domino effect that destabilized the cell membrane.He was not entirely correct, but pore-forming colicins do depolarize the membrane and thus eliminate the energy source for the cell.