Nonlinear Excitations In Biomolecules

In the last few years, hopes have emerged that simple concepts could perhaps explain the extremely complicated biomolecular processes which are known to a greater and greater accuracy thanks to the extraordinary progress of biology. In parallel, powerful methods in physics, especially nonlinearity and cooperative effects, have been developed. They apply especially to biological phenomena and can explain coherent excitations with remarkable properties. This book provides a pedagogical introduction to the theory of nonlinear excitations and solitons in a biological environment, and also to the structure and function of biomolecules as well as energy and charge transport in biophysics.

This is a book about the physical processes in reacting complex molecules, particularly biomolecules. In the past decade scientists from different fields such as medicine, biology, chemistry and physics have collected a huge amount of data about the structure, dynamics and functioning of biomolecules. Great progress has been achieved in exploring the structure of complex molecules. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the dynamics and functioning of biological macromolecules. In particular this refers to enzymes, which are the basic molecular machines working in living systems. This book contributes to the exploration of the physical mechanisms of these processes, focusing on critical aspects such as the role of nonlinear excitations and of stochastic effects. An extensive range of original results has been obtained in the last few years by the authors, and these results are presented together with a comprehensive survey of the state of the art in the field. Contents:Introduction to the Reaction Theory and Cluster Dynamics of Enzymes (W Ebeling, A Netrebko & Yu Romanovsky)Tools of Stochastic Dynamics (L Schimansky-Geier & P Talkner)Motion of Test Particles in a 2-D Potential Landscape (O A Chichigina, A V Netrebko & N V Netrebko)Microscopic Simulations of Activation and Dissociation (W Ebeling, V Yu Podlipchuk, M G Sapeshinsky & A A Valuev)Excitations on Rings of Molecules (A Chetverikov, W Ebeling, M Jenssen & Yu Romanovsky)Fermi Resonance and Kramers Problem in 2-D Force Field (S V Kroo, A V Netrebko, Yu M Romanovsky & L Schimansky-Geier)Molecular Scissors. Cluster Model of Acetylcholinesterase (A Yu Chikishev, S V Kroo, A V Netrebko, N V Netrebko & Yu Romanovsky)Dynamics of Proton Transfer in the Active Site of Chymotrypsin (A Yu Chikishev, B A Grishanin & E V Shuvalova)On the Damping of Cluster Oscillations in Protein Molecules (A Yu Chikishev, A V Netrebko & Yu M Romanovsky)Protein Dynamics and New Approaches to the Molecular Mechanisms of Protein Functioning (K V Shaitan) Readership: Researchers and graduate students in physics, biophysics, molecular biology and the life sciences; experts on nonlinear dynamics and the stochastic process in molecular systems and biomolecules. Keywords:Stochastic Dynamics;Reacting Complex Molecules;Biomolecules;Enzymatic Reactions;Molecular Dynamics;Nonlinear Excitations;Resonances

The first edition of this book was the first on the physics of DNA to go beyond the simple (simplified) 'linear' approach, and it has since been found that the inclusion of nonlinear effects leads to a significantly improved interpretation of experimental data. This new edition naturally retains this approach, but has been completely revised, updated and expanded to cover recent developments. Beginning with introductory chapters on DNA structure and dynamics, the book also includes a comparison between linear and nonlinear approaches to the DNA molecule, a chapter devoted to the statistics of nonlinear excitations of DNA, and examples for the interpretation of experimental data on the dynamics of DNA in terms of nonlinear theory. Essential reading for researchers in biophysics and nonlinear physics, allowing biologists, chemists and physicists to continue developing new and improved techniques of investigating the DNA molecule.

In 438 alphabetically-arranged essays, this work provides a useful overview of the core mathematical background for nonlinear science, as well as its applications to key problems in ecology and biological systems, chemical reaction-diffusion problems, geophysics, economics, electrical and mechanical oscillations in engineering systems, lasers and nonlinear optics, fluid mechanics and turbulence, and condensed matter physics, among others.

Nonlinear science is by now a well established field of research at the interface of many traditional disciplines and draws on the theoretical concepts developed in physics and mathematics. The present volume gathers the contributions of leading scientists to give the state of the art in many areas strongly influenced by nonlinear research, such as superconduction, optics, lattice dynamics, biology and biomolecular dynamics. While this volume is primarily intended for researchers working in the field care, has been taken that it will also be of benefit to graduate students or nonexpert scientist wishing to familiarize themselves with the current status of research.

This is the first of two Euroconferences aimed at addressing the issues of Nonlinearity and Disorder. The 1995 Euroconference was devoted to the mathematical, numerical and experimental studies related to the Klein-Gordon and Schrödinger systems. The Euroconference was organized around main lectures in each area to introduce the main concepts and stimulate discussions. The mathematical studies covered the functional anlaysis and stochastic techniques applied to the general Klein-Gordon and Schrödinger wave equations. Also a panoramic view of the numerical schemes was presented to simulate the above equations, as well as an overview of the applications of such systems in the areas of condensed matter, optical physics, new materials and biophysics. Special attention was devoted to the discrete Schrödinger and Klein-Gordon systems and their applications.