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Re: WSN: structure, hydrophobicity, and textbooks (fwd)
Sender: Humberto saint Martin <humberto@ce.ifisicam.unam.mx>
Subject: Re: WSN: structure, hydrophobicity, and textbooks
The structure of water and its relevance to Biology are issues of
active research, and a problem which is currently being addressed
is the role of hydration in different biochemical reactions. That is,
water is not only a scenario where solutes react, but the very
fact that it hydrates them has a direct effect on the energetic balance
of the reactions. Since a landmark paper by Peter George and collaborators,
in 1970 (Biochim. Biophys. Acta 223, 1-15), attention has been paid
to solvation energies, and a ``desolvation hypothesis'' for enzymic
catalysis has been advanced by Dewar and Storch (Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. USA (1985) 82, 2225-2229). There is also a ``counterhypothesis''
by Warshel and coworkers (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1989) 86, 5820 - 5824).
Worth mentioning is the work of Leopoldo De Meis on the hydrolysis
of phosphoanhydrides and phosphoesters (e. g. J. Biol. Chem. (1989) 264,
7869-7873, and Biochim. Biophys. Acta (1989) 973, 333-349). I can't
avoid making reference to a small contribution by us (Biochim. Biophys.
Acta (1991) 1080, 205-214), and to a book edited by Armando Gomez-Puyou;
``Biomolecules in Organic Solvents'' (1992) CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Hopefully you can find useful information there.
--
Humberto Saint Martin
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