Living cells are sustained by countless chemical reactions that must be carefully regulated to maintain internal order and function. Enzymes play a central role in this process, accelerating reactions that would otherwise proceed too slowly to support life.
  • spinnetrouble@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    2 hours ago

    Let me preface this by saying I didn’t do well in chemistry. I haven’t gotten any better at it over the years, so I could be looking at this entirely wrong.

    It sounds like these Maxwell’s demon enzymes do the catalysis, which causes enough of a change in their shape that it changes their mobility until they return to their original shape. That’s what pushes them away from the products of the reaction, preventing the enzymes from reversing it when things calm down.

    When a system’s at equilibrium, that reaction would reverse as often as it proceeds, so this is the big deal part. By moving the enzyme away from the products, Maxwell’s demons ensure the system doesn’t remain at equilibrium without needing to use any additional energy. They don’t need to kick off a wall to swim away, they can float off (or something like it) just fine.

    It’s like how you’re not supposed to wear the same bra two days in a row because it wears out the elastic. After having been stretched over your body all day, the elastic stays stretched for a little while and takes time to return to its original shape. It’s not magic, it’s just a property of the material.

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      4 hours ago

      The point of Maxwell’s demon is that there’s an intimate connection between thermodynamic entropy and information: increasing entropy reduces information, but adding information can reduce entropy.

      I think what they’re getting at here is that the enzyme’s state preserves information about its recent past which it then uses to reduce entropy the way Maxwell’s demon does.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    the researchers constructed a theoretical model where the transient increase in motility served as a “memory” of the enzyme’s immediate past reaction event. The enzyme used this information to leave the product molecules, thereby eliminating the probability of the reverse reaction.

    So if I’m understanding correctly, just after an enzyme catalyzes a reaction it “remembers” that the products it just produced must still be nearby and knocks itself away from them?