English

Enhanced Diffusion and Chemotaxis of Enzymes

Chemical Physics 2019-10-29 v4 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Biological Physics Biomolecules

Abstract

Many enzymes appear to diffuse faster in the presence of substrate and to drift either up or down a concentration gradient of their substrate. Observations of these phenomena, termed enhanced enzyme diffusion (EED) and enzyme chemotaxis, respectively, lead to a novel view of enzymes as active matter. Enzyme chemotaxis and EED may be important in biology, and they could have practical applications in biotechnology and nanotechnology. They also are of considerable biophysical interest; indeed, their physical mechanisms are still quite uncertain. This review provides an analytic summary of experimental studies of these phenomena and of the mechanisms that have been proposed to explain them, and offers a perspective of future directions for the field.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.08909,
  title  = {Enhanced Diffusion and Chemotaxis of Enzymes},
  author = {Mudong Feng and Michael K. Gilson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.08909},
  year   = {2019}
}