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Statistical Physics of Active Enzyme Suspensions

活性酶悬浮液的统计物理

基本信息

批准号：
1964308
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of Oxford
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2016 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1964308
关键词：
Statistical Physics Active Enzyme Suspensions

项目摘要

Understanding the dynamics of biomolecules is crucial if we are to fully appreciate and potentially harness their functionalities in the search for biocompatible micro- and nanomachines. However, there are currently many obstacles obscuring the path to a complete description at the fundamental level that would allow for the design and fabrication of such machines. The intrigue and complication is increased by the variety of biomolecular species, meaning that there are many possible applications, but also that their physical properties do not obviously fit into one universality class. For example, a variety of propulsion mechanisms have been observed and predicted for microscopic swimmers. Enzymes have received a lot attention for their ability to perform very specific functions at nanoscales under conditions dominated by thermal fluctuations and viscous hydrodynamics. Recently, the question of the effect of catalytic activity of enzymes on their diffusion properties has been studied. Experiments with dilute solutions of enzyme molecules which catalyse exothermic reactions and typically have high catalytic rates have revealed that their diffusion is substantially enhanced in a way that is dependent on the substrate concentration when they are catalytically active. Accordingly, there have been theoretical investigations into the underlying mechanism of the phenomenon, such as explanations founded on the exothermicity and fast rate of catalysis of the chemical cycle of the enzyme. The effect of hydrodynamic coupling of enzyme molecules to their environment has also been studied. All of the theories proposed so far relied on the idea that the catalytic cycle is out of equilibrium, or fail to accurately describe the experimental evidence without very specific atypical assumptions. Furthermore, the observation appears to be generic: Recent experiments have demonstrated enhanced diffusion in the endothermic and slow enzyme aldolase. The phenomenon is observed for a wide range of enzymes with very different chemical properties, which were not captured by existing theoretical frameworks for enhanced diffusion. Therefore, we investigate a new theoretical approach to the understanding of this physical phenomenon, capable of replicating all of the experimental evidence. With this, we hope to propose a new universal theory for enhanced diffusion of enzyme molecules which is independent of their non-physical properties.This project falls within the EPSRC physical sciences grand challenges of Emergence and Physics Far from Equilibrium, Nanoscale Design of Functional Materials, and Understanding the Physics of Life.

如果我们要充分理解并潜在地利用生物分子的功能来寻找生物兼容的微型和纳米机器，了解生物分子的动力学是至关重要的。然而，目前有许多障碍阻碍了在基本层面上进行全面描述的道路，这将允许设计和制造这种机器。生物分子物种的多样性增加了复杂性和复杂性，这意味着有许多可能的应用，但它们的物理性质显然不适合一个普适性类别。例如，已经观察到并预测了微观游泳者的各种推进机制。酶因其在受热波动和粘性流体动力学支配的条件下在纳米尺度上执行非常特定的功能而受到极大的关注。近年来，人们开始研究酶的催化活性对其扩散性能的影响。用催化放热反应的酶分子的稀溶液进行的实验表明，当它们具有催化活性时，它们的扩散以一种依赖于底物浓度的方式显著增强。因此，对这一现象的潜在机制进行了理论研究，如基于酶的化学循环的放热和快速催化的解释。还研究了酶分子的流体动力耦合对其环境的影响。到目前为止，所有提出的理论都依赖于催化循环失去平衡的想法，或者在没有非常具体的非典型假设的情况下无法准确地描述实验证据。此外，观察结果似乎是通用的：最近的实验表明，吸热型和慢速型酶醛缩酶的扩散增强。这一现象在化学性质非常不同的一系列酶中观察到，而现有的增强扩散理论框架没有捕捉到这种现象。因此，我们研究了一种新的理论方法来理解这种物理现象，能够复制所有的实验证据。在此基础上，我们希望提出一种与酶分子的非物理性质无关的增强扩散的新的普适理论。该项目属于EPSRC物理科学的重大挑战，如浮现和远离平衡的物理，功能材料的纳米级设计，以及理解生命的物理。