Moments of excitement

• Autores: Peter G. Wolynes
• Localización: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 352, Nº 6282, 2016, págs. 150-151
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • At the atomic level, biomolecular dynamics, like war to its soldiers, consists of long periods of boredom interspersed by brief, intense moments of excitement. During the vast majority of its existence, a biomolecule flails about randomly, with large-amplitude motions when unfolded and with smaller-amplitude motions when folded. Rare transitions between these two states of often apparently aimless activity occur through a fleeting series of steps: a set of transition paths guided by the biomolecular energy landscape. On page 239 of this issue, Neupane et al. use single-molecule force spectroscopy to study the transition paths for folding a nucleic acid and for misfolding a prion protein (1). They are able to confirm some very basic aspects of biomolecular energy landscape theory.