Abstract
MANY interactions involving protein molecules are of a co-operative nature. For example, the Bohr effect in haemoglobin1 and the changed enzyme activity of allosteric enzymes are brought about by the attachment of a small molecule2. In such cases the binding of a small molecule affects the behaviour and chemical reactivity of sites in different and distant regions of the protein or even, in the case of haemoglobin, in a different protein molecule. The binding of an oxygen molecule to a haem group in one sub-unit of haemoglobin influences the oxygen binding ability of the haem group in a neighbouring sub-unit.
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BREUER, M. Proton Dispersion Forces—Inter-molecular Forces acting in Co-operative Protein Interactions. Nature 218, 1076–1077 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/2181076a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2181076a0
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