Microwaving enzymes that work best in hot environments can boost their activity at near-room temperature, find Alexander Deiters and his co-workers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. They exposed several enzymes from hyperthermophilic organisms that function best at 90–110°C to microwave radiation that warmed the enzyme–substrate mixture to around 40°C.
Normally, the enzymes would have done little at 40°C, but the microwaves multiplied their industriousness at this temperature, in one case more than fourfold. Deiters and his team attribute the effect to a loosening up of the enzymes' molecular structures, caused by interactions of the molecules and the microwaves' oscillating electric field.
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Biochemistry: Cook the catalyst. Nature 454, 257 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454257a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454257a