A cartoon illustrating relaxation of the inner leaflet of the membrane. The top right corner shows a configuration with an excised patch inside the pipette. Only the outer leaflet is in contact with the pipette, whereas the inner leaflet is free to relax. Anisotropic pressure gradient tends to promote “rolling” of the lipids across the membrane edge. The bottom panel shows whole spheroplast configuration with more isotropically distributed pressure. The molecular models illustrate cytoplasmic position of the gate in both channels relative to the membrane midplane (dashed line).