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Molecular Machines: Mechanics and/or Statistics?

What are Molecular Machines and Whether or not a Classical Thermodynamic Approach is Valid for the Description of Biological Systems

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Biophysical Thermodynamics of Intracellular Processes

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Abstract

To understand the main features of the mechanisms of energy transduction at the molecular level we need, first of all, to get an answer to the question: How the laws of thermodynamics, including the Second Law, can be applied to explain performing work by one macromolecule acting individually and independently on the states of other ones? The interest in this subject had been suggested to one of us (L.A.B.) as early as 1971–1972, by the analysis of certain biophysical aspects of enzymes functioning [1, 2]. The scrutiny of the “mechanical” properties of macromolecules had led to the formulation of the new concept of enzyme catalysis, called the relaxation concept. At the same time, McClare independently began to analyze the operation of macromolecules considering them as molecular machines [3–6]. We want to start our analysis of this problem by reviewing in brief some principle notions in theoretical bioenergetics that had been put forward by McClare, although, it would be much more interesting and useful for the reader to read his original works [3–6]. Many of McClare’s original and clear ideas were ahead of conventional concepts in the realm of biothermodynamics, and were probably not appreciated in full by the majority of biophysicists and biochemists. The main points and conclusions of this chapter are consonant with McClare’s ideas.

Article Note

The problem we have to consider is the molecular nature of living things, and, particularly, whether such systems can work the same way as ordinary chemical machines…. Only by re-examining some of our fundamental beliefs will it be possible to resolve the problems which exist at present in bioenergetics.

(C.W.F. McClare, Chemical machines, Maxwell’s demon and living organisms (1971), J. Theor. Biol. 2, 1–34.)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin Str. 4, V-334, 117977, Moscow, Russia

    Lev A. Blumenfeld

  2. Department of Biophysics Faculty of Physics, M.V. Lomonsov State University, 119899, Moscow, Russia

    Alexander N. Tikhonov

Authors
  1. Lev A. Blumenfeld
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  2. Alexander N. Tikhonov
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Blumenfeld, L.A., Tikhonov, A.N. (1994). Molecular Machines: Mechanics and/or Statistics?. In: Biophysical Thermodynamics of Intracellular Processes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2630-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2630-7_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7615-9

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