Descripción del proyecto
THE EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENT OF ENTROPY AND ENERGY DISSIPATION IN MOLECULES AND CELLS IS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTAND THEIR BEHAVIOR, THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS REGARDING ENTROPY AND INFORMATION IN THE TIGHTLY RELATED FIELDS OF MOLECULAR THERMODYNAMICS OF NUCLEIC ACIDS, RNA FOLDING, CHEMICALLY POWERED MOLECULAR MACHINES AND RED BLOOD CELLS AND THERMODYNAMIC INFORMATION IN WORK-EXTRACTING MACHINES, THE PROPOSAL GATHERS ALL THESE TOPICS UNDER THE COMMON CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL UMBRELLA OF STOCHASTIC THERMODYNAMICS AND SINGLE MOLECULE FORCE SPECTROSCOPY, ASSESSING THE LONG-STANDING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTROPY AND INFORMATION UNDER THE CLARIFYING LIGHT OF THE EXPERIMENT,UNDERSTANDING THE ENERGETICS OF INTRAMOLECULAR AND INTERMOLECULAR INTERACTIONS IS ESSENTIAL TO CHARACTERIZE THE BEHAVIOUR AND ORGANIZATION OF LIVING MATTER, TRADITIONALLY SUCH QUANTITIES HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATED USING BULK METHODS WHERE MEASURES ARE AVERAGES TAKEN OVER A VERY LARGE NUMBER OF MOLECULES (TYPICALLY LARGER THAN 1010) IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS, THE DEVELOPMENTS OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS IN SINGLE MOLECULE MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES SUCH AS OPTICAL TWEEZERS (WITH NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 2018 AWARDED TO ARTHUR ASHKIN), MAGNETIC TWEEZERS, AFM AND ACOUSTIC TWEEZERS, EVENTUALLY COMBINED WITH SINGLE MOLECULE FLUORESCENCE, MICROFLUIDICS, SINGLE MOLECULE TRANSLOCATION ETC, ARE A PRECIOUS TOOLBOX FOR THE SCIENTIST TO SCRUTINIZE THE MOLECULAR WORLD, PARTICULARLY USEFUL TO THE PHYSICIST IS SINGLE MOLECULE FORCE SPECTROSCOPY THAT PERMITS TO INVESTIGATE FORCES IN SINGLE MOLECULES AND CELLS [1],THIS PROJECT IS THE NATURAL CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS ONE (2017-2019) ON SINGLE MOLECULE RESEARCH OF INTERMOLECULAR BINDING OF NUCLEIC ACIDS AND LIGANDS, MANY OF THE QUESTIONS WE ASKED THERE HAVE NOW BEEN SUCCESSFULLY ANSWERED, IN THE PRESENT PROJECT WE EXPAND OUR RESEARCH INTO FOUR DIRECTIONS, FIRST, WE AIM TO ENLARGE OUR CURRENT KNOWLEDGE OF MOLECULAR THERMODYNAMICS OF NUCLEIC ACIDS BY ADDRESSING THE ENTROPY AND ENTHALPY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ESSENTIAL REACTIONS SUCH AS DNA HYBRIDIZATION AND RNA MG2+ BINDING, SECOND, WE INVESTIGATE THE ROLE OF ENTROPY AND TEMPERATURE IN RNA FOLDING AND MISFOLDING BY EXPLORING RNA THERMOMETERS AND RNAS WITH A RUGGED FREE ENERGY LANDSCAPE, NEXT WE CONSIDER NONEQUILIBRIUM STEADY STATE BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS DRIVEN BY CHEMICAL REACTIONS AND METABOLISM AND ADDRESS HOW TO MEASURE ENTROPY PRODUCTION AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL (E,G, MOLECULAR MOTOR TRANSLOCATION) AND CELLULAR LEVEL (RELAXATIONAL DYNAMICS OF HUMAN RED BLOOD CELLS), FINALLY, WE INTRODUCE THERMODYNAMIC INFORMATION AS A NEW KEY QUANTITY TO INVESTIGATE THERMODYNAMICS OF MOLECULAR SYSTEMS UNDER FEEDBACK CONTROL, THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS THREEFOLD: FIRST, WE AIM TO SET THE EXPERIMENTAL BASIS FOR AN IMPROVED MOLECULAR THERMODYNAMICS FOR NUCLEIC ACIDS DOWN TO THE SUB-KCAL/MOL ACCURACY; SECOND, WE AIM AT SETTING THE EXPERIMENTAL-THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK TO QUANTITATIVELY ADDRESS ENTROPY PRODUCTION FLUCTUATIONS IN MOLECULAR SYSTEMS EXHIBITING SLOW RELAXATIONAL DYNAMICS (RNA) AND NONEQUILIBRIUM STEADY STATES IN CHEMICALLY POWERED MOTORS AND CELLS, FINALLY, WE AIM AT INCORPORATING THERMODYNAMIC INFORMATION IN NONEQUILIBRIUM PROCESSES USING EXPERIMENTAL REALIZATIONS MAXWELL DEMONS AS MODEL SYSTEMS OF INFORMATION-TO-ENERGY CONVERSION, SINGLE MOLECULE EXPERIMENTS\NUCLEIC ACIDS THERMODYNAMICS\RNA FOLDING\NONEQUILIBRIUM PHYSICS\INFORMATION-TO-ENERGY CONVERSION.