Astrochemistry and Astrobiology by Ian W. M. Smith Charles S. Cockell & Sydney Leach

Author:Ian W. M. Smith, Charles S. Cockell & Sydney Leach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg

But this does not mean that it is of only marginal relevance to biochemistry. Chandler and coworkers have argued that dewetting does not in fact demand the spontaneous appearance of a cavity but draws instead on the intrinsic fluctuations of water density at the water-hydrophobe interface [38]. Simulations show that these fluctuations are similar to those at a water-air interface. Patel et al. have argued that biomolecules may tune these fluctuations so that they sit close to a dewetting transition [39] – revealed not by any difference in average water density at the interface but instead more subtly, by an enhancement in rare, large fluctuations that fleetingly dry the surface. Small conformational changes can then tip the balance towards or away from the wet state, thus significantly altering the biomolecular structure and function. This tendency of biological systems to position themselves close to a phase transition and thereby to enable sensitive and pronounced responses to changes in the environment is likely to be generic (see also Lines 569-571, [lines 659–660] and Lines 815-816 below). In this case, Patel et al. [38] say that proteins such as BphC that do not aggregate by dewetting [35] lie on one side of the fluctuation-driven transition, and others such as melittin that do follow this mechanism [34] lie on the other side. In summary, there is ample reason to believe that dewetting and the consequent hydrophobic attraction are real phenomena, and that they are relevant to the behaviour of biomolecules. But they are unlikely to fully explain why hydrophobic association between these entities occurs.

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