Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 8:30 AM
Medical Arts Building, Rm M-146 (Queensborough Community College)
391

Reaction Coordinates in Enzymes - Promoting Vibrations

Steven D. Schwartz, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY

The mechanism by which enzymes catalyze chemical reactions is still in many cases unclear. One controversial suggestion is that picosecond vibrations in the protein backbone form part of the reaction mechanism. Using Transition Path Sampling and Committor distributions we show that such promoting vibrations are indeed a central part of the mechanism of a number of enzymatic reactions.