The concept of molecular machines in biology has transformed the medical field in a profound way. Many essential processes that occur in the cell, including transcription, translation, protein folding and protein degradation, are all carried out by molecular machines. This volume focuses on important molecular machines whose architecture is known and whose functional principles have been established by tools of biophysical imaging (X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy) and fluorescence probing (single-molecule FRET). This edited volume includes contributions from prominent scientists and researchers who understand and have explored the structure and functions of these machines. This book is essential for students and professionals in the medical field who want to learn more about molecular machines.
• This contributed book deals with the concept of molecular machines and the new techniques that help us better understand cell processes • Edited by Joachim Frank, a world-renowned expert in structural biology
Contents
Introduction; 1. Single-molecule FRET: technique and applications to the studies of molecular machines Xinghua Shi and Taekjip Ha; 2. Visualization of molecular machines by cryo-electron microscopy Joachim Frank; 3. Statistical mechanical treatment of molecular machines Debashish Chowdhury; 4. Investigation of molecular machines by normal mode analysis Karunesh Arora and Charles L. Brooks, III; 5. Structure, function, and evolution of archaeo-eukaryotic RNA polymerases – gatekeepers of the genome Finn Werner and Dina Grohmann; 6. Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer investigations of ribosome-catalyzed protein synthesis Daniel D. MacDougall, Jingyi Fei and Ruben L. Gonzalez, Jr; 7. Structure and dynamics of the ribosome as revealed by cryo-electron microscopy Xabier Agirrezabala and Mikel Valle; 8. Viewing the mechanisms of translation through the computational microscope James Gumbart, Eduard Schreiner, Leonardo G. Trabuco, Kwok-Yan Chan and Klaus Schulten; 9. The ribosome as a Brownian ratchet machine Alexander S. Spirin and Alexei V. Finkelstein; 10. The GroEL/GroES chaperonin machine Arthur L. Horwich and Helen R. Saibil; 11. ATP synthase – a paradigmatic molecular machine Thomas Meier, José Faraldo-Gómez and Michael Börsch; 12. ATP-dependent proteases Sucharita Bhattacharyya, Shameika R. Wilmington and Andreas Matouschek.
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