Open AccessMolecular Paradigms for Biological Mechanosensing
Author(s) -
David Gomez,
Willmor J. Peña Ccoa,
Yuvraj Singh,
Enrique Rojas,
Glen M. Hocky
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the journal of physical chemistry. b
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1520-6106
pISSN - 1520-5207
DOI - 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c06330
Subject(s) - molecular machine , molecular dynamics , perspective (graphical) , living systems , range (aeronautics) , physics , variety (cybernetics) , chemistry , nanotechnology , biophysics , computer science , biological system , biology , materials science , computational chemistry , artificial intelligence , composite material
Many proteins in living cells are subject to mechanical forces, which can be generated internally by molecular machines, or externally, e.g., by pressure gradients. In general, these forces fall in the piconewton range, which is similar in magnitude to forces experienced by a molecule due to thermal fluctuations. While we would naively expect such moderate forces to produce only minimal changes, a wide variety of "mechanosensing" proteins have evolved with functions that are responsive to forces in this regime. The goal of this article is to provide a physical chemistry perspective on protein-based molecular mechanosensing paradigms used in living systems, and how these paradigms can be explored using novel computational methods.