SolitonsDa vydo v
Important biological events involve spatial transfer of energy along protein molecules. One well known example is the contractile curling of myosin heads in muscle contraction, fueled by the hydrolysis of ATP molecules. These quanta of biological energy are equivalent to 0.43 electron volts, only 20 times greater than background energy and insufficient to excite molecular electronic states. Consequently, under usual conditions biological systems do not emit photons. This implied to Davydov 1977...
Intermediate Filaments
The major filamentous components of the cytoskeleton are MT, actin filaments, intermediate filaments IF , and a class of delicate interconnecting fibrils called the microtrabecular lattice MTL which will be described later in this chapter. Here the unknown members of the cytoskeleton, intermediate filaments are reviewed Lazarides, 1980 . Intermediate filaments represent the most nebulous and chemically variable subgroup among the cytoskeleton. Five classes of IF have been distinguished which...
The Microtrabecular Lattice MTL
New techniques in electron microscopy developed by Keith Porter and colleagues 1981 at the University of Colorado at Boulder have led to observation of an irregular three dimensional lattice of slender strands throughout the cytoplasm, interconnecting nearly everything in the cell. The interlinked filaments appear to suspend the various cell systems, organelles, and larger cytoskeletal elements such as microtubules and filaments with a matrix material continuous with the individual lattice...
Energy and Information in Microtubules
Direct support for the propagation of signals in MT has been generated by Vassilev, Kanazirska, and Tien 1985 who reconstituted bilayer membranes from brain lipids and studied their electrical excitability. They suspended membranes as parallel unconnected plane surfaces separated several millimeters apart in a buffer solution which contained depolymerized tubulin, GTP, and other physiological components. Each membrane was monitored electrically and baseline recording of the two membranes showed...