Molecular machines are complex biomolecules, proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates that consume energy in order to perform specific functions. The concerted action of all those machines underlies all the activities of the living cell. To understand how such molecular machines are able to perform their function, it is necessary to identify the different moving parts and understand how they act together. Breaking new ground with these difficult problems is likely to require novel paradigms permitting a seamless integration of structural, dynamical and functional data from experiments and theory.The goal of this volume is to provide an introduction to the world of biological molecular machines to a broad audience of students and researchers in biosciences. Each chapter is written by leading experts to cover results from cutting-edge research, while remaining broadly accessible. The volume presents the current state of knowledge for several important systems, ranging from polymerases, the ribosome, chaperonins, the chromatophore, kinases, actin and myosin, membrane transporters, and voltage-gated ion channels, thus giving students and researches in biosciences a pedagogically integrated picture of this exciting and rapidly expanding field.
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Molecular machines are complex biomolecules (protein, DNA, RNA and carbohydrates that consume energy in order to perform specific functions. To understand how these systems perform their functions, it is necessary to have detailed knowledge of the conformational states of these molecular machines, as well as the reaction pathways connecting them.
Many of these conformational transitions take place on a timescale that is far beyond what is attainable with current molecular dynamics simulations on large and complex systems. On the other hand, experimental methods are often unable to detect the short-lived transient features occurring during such conformational transitions. Thus, breaking new ground toward a complete knowledge of the reaction pathways of molecular machines requires a novel paradigm permitting a seamless integration of structural, dynamical and functional data among existing theories, models and simulations.
This review volume provides the most updated summary on the cutting-edge research of many molecular machines, ranging from ATPase, DNA polymerase, ribosome, calcium pump, chloride channel, neurotransmitters transporter, chaperon GroEL for protein folding, microtubes and chromatin, voltage-gating proteins, membrane fusion snare proteins, actin and myosin, DNA base flipping enzymes and proteins that are responsible for our immune system. It contains results from both theoretical and experimental fronts, thus giving students and researches in biosciences a pedagogically integrated picture of this critical network that we called “Life.”
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