Molecular Interactions and the Behaviors of Biological Macromolecules
Molecular interactions, crucial in chemistry and biology, involve noncovalent forces between molecules impacting processes like protein folding and material science. Understanding atomic properties is key to grasping these interactions' significance.
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Molecular interactions, also known as noncovalent interactions, are forces between molecules and non-bonded atoms that play a crucial role in various fields like chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysics. These interactions can be attractive, repulsive, cohesive, or adhesive, affecting processes such as protein folding, drug design, and material science. Bonds within molecules differ from molecular interactions, with bond enthalpies significantly higher than those of noncovalent interactions. Understanding atomic properties like size, shape, and electronegativity is essential to comprehend molecular interactions, as illustrated by the Periodic Table. In biological systems, molecular interactions drive the folding and assembly of macromolecules into complex structures. These interactions stabilize both folded and unfolded states, with small changes in conditions leading to significant alterations. Short-range repulsion, a critical aspect of molecular interactions, prevents atoms from collapsing into dense states and influences phenomena like clapping hands. Overall, molecular interactions are fundamental in shaping the behaviors of biological macromolecules and have broad implications across scientific disciplines.
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1 comments"This document is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Charles Lochmuller (right) of Duke University. Dr. Lochmuller was a good guy, a natural comic, and an eminent scientist.
Here I approach biochemistry in a new (I believe) way. It is tradition, starting with Lehninger's first Biochemistry textbook and continuing in essentially all subsequent biochemistry textbooks, to teach about each type of biopolymer in isolation of the others other. Protein DNA, RNA and carbohydrate are described in distinct, well-separated chapters as unrelated chemical phenomena.
In Part 2 of this document I present DNA, RNA, polypeptide, and polysaccharide in the context of their common attributes. Rather than focusing exclusively on the differences (amino acid side chains, nucleic acid bases, etc), I focus on the profound universal properties (self-complementarity, emergence, etc) that unite biopolymers. In my view only by learning about biopolymers in context of each other can one hope to achieve a reasonable understanding of them"
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