Whole Cells - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 430

7. It is interesting to note that the last two columns of Table 12.10 summarize the
key results of my theoretical research in molecular and cell biology that spans a
period of almost four decades - from 1972 through 2010.
a When matter is heated above some threshold temperature, electrons in their
ground states are excited and promoted to higher energy levels (see Fig. 11.28 ).
When these electrons return to their ground states, light is emitted with varying
frequencies (or colors), giving rise to the so-called blackbody spectrum (see the
upper right-hand panel in Fig. 11.24 ).
b When biopolymers are heated to physiological temperatures, all the degrees of
freedom of motions of atoms and groups of atoms constituting them are excited to
higher energy levels, including vibration, rotation, and bending motions and rarely
electronic motions as in blackbody radiation which usually requires heating beyond
the physiological temperature range.
c The cell is densely packed (or “crowded”) with m different types of biopolymers,
each type being represented by n copies, where m can be maximally 6,300 in budding
yeast, the size of the yeast genome, and n can range from 1 to over 10 3 . Out of the
almost an infinite number, mn, of the systems of biopolymers that can form inside a
single cell through various combinations of the biopolymers in different combining
ratios, only a small fraction of them is thought to be metabolically active at any given
time to meet the metabolic demand of the cell under a given environmental condition.
It is assumed here that these metabolically active biopolymeric complexes (acting as a
SOAWAN machine; Sect. 2.4 ) constitute a set of cell states, analogous to the
electronic states in atoms or quantum dots (see Sect. 4.15 ) . Therefore, just as heating
matter leads to alterations in the electronic configurations of atoms, so it is postulated
that heating causes rearrangements of component biopolymers leading to alterations
in the number and kinds of metabolically active biopolymeric complexes (MABCs, or
SOWAWN machines) formed, each catalyzing a specific metabolic pathway or its
component processes during their lifetime. Ribons discussed earlier can be thought to
represent the activities of MABCs.
d Blackbody radiation implicates heating at high temperatures, typically from
3,500 to 5,500 K. At these temperatures, electrons can undergo transitions from one
energy level to another.
e Heating biopolymers to physiological temperatures (280-320 K) usually does
not affect electronic energy levels of atoms (except at active sites) but cause
transitions between vibrational, rotational, and bending energy levels of groups of
atoms within biopolymers as well as alterations in the translational (or diffusional)
motions (speeds) of biopolymer molecules as motional units.
f Most, if not all, of the energy absorbed by matter during heating is re-emitted as
light during blackbody radiation.
g The heat absorbed by an enzyme from its environment is re-emitted as heat after
the residence time t 0 , where t 0 is much shorter than the turnover time, t ,ofan
enzyme, the time required for an enzyme to catalyze one cycle of a chemical
reaction: t 0 < t . But what

is measured in a single-molecule enzymological