In the past ten years or so there have emerged a number of theoretical models of enzyme action which maintain that classes of fluctuations in the protein structure provide means for generating high energy-free events at the active center. The purpose of the present volume is to review these theoretical pursuits and deal with theoretical constructs which are applicable to enzyme kinetics per se. The goal is to bring together in a single volume most of the current theoretical ideas on the dynamical basis of enzyme action. The models presented in the book should be regarded as initial steps in the dialectical course of constructing a rigorous theoretical foundation, whereby certain tenets from each model may ultimately prove relevant to the whole. The editors hope that the combined effort represented by this volume should prove synergistic in our common goal of understanding the secrets of nature's fantastic catalysts and their role in the processes of life.
Free-Energy Management in Protein Reactions: Concepts, Complications,
and Compensation (R. Lumry & R. B; Gregory); The Statistical Nature of
Protein Structural Fluctuations (A. Ikegami); The Statistical Time
Correlation Approach to Enzyme Action: The Role of Hydration (G. Careri & E.
Gratton); Molecular Dynamics and the Transient Strain Model of Enzyme
Catalysis (B. Gavish); A Microenvironmental Approach to Enzyme Dynamics (B.
Somogyi & S. Damjanovich); Processes of Conformational Relaxation in Enzyme
Catalysis (L. A. Blumenfeld, D. S; Burbajev & R. M; Davydov); Electronic
Conformational Interaction in Biopolymers (M. V. Volkenstein); Coherence and
the Action of Enzymes (H. Frohlich); Not Just Catalysts--Molecular Machines
in Bioenergetics (G. R. Welch & D. B; Kell); Index.
