IMR Press / FBL / Volume 14 / Issue 9 / DOI: 10.2741/3463

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Roles of translational motion of water molecules in sustaining life
Show Less
1 Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2009, 14(9), 3419–3454; https://doi.org/10.2741/3463
Published: 1 January 2009
Abstract

By reviewing the results of our analyses based on statistical-mechanical theories, we point out that the entropic effect arising from the translational motion of water molecules is a principal driving force in a variety of self-assembling and ordering processes in biological systems such as protein folding, molecular recognition, and ordered aggregation of protein molecules. The great entropic loss for the biomolecules accompanying these processes is largely compensated by a great entropic gain of the water that is present in the system. The microscopic mechanisms of protein folding and denaturation, receptor-ligand binding, and amyloid-fibril formation are discussed in detail. We describe an effort to develop a unique method for predicting the native structure of a protein. The roles of NaCl and cosolute molecules are also briefly discussed.

Share
Back to top