Paul D. Boyer, Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), and the
Binding Change Mechanism
Courtesy of UCLA
· Resources with Additional
Information
'For Paul Boyer, the Nobel Prize was "an unexpected pleasure." It
had been 20 years since he formulated a hypothesis to describe what he calls "the
most prominent chemical reaction in the whole world." It is the process
by which molecules produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), thereby transmuting
light, air, water and food into the energy required for both plant and animal
life.
Boyer had been greeted with disbelief when he theorized that the previously mysterious
process is the work of a "beautiful little machine" that
operates within enzymes on the molecular level. ...
Boyer experienced "one of the warmest moments of my life" when
he learned that British biochemist John Walker had worked out the methodology
required to demonstrate whether Boyer had been right or wrong. ... Using
Walker's methodology, one of Boyer's former graduate students "did some
elegant chemical work to demonstrate that the molecular rotation actually occurred." Boyer's
hypothesis, finally, had been proven correct. For work that so enriched understanding
of the life process itself, he and Walker were jointly awarded the Nobel
prize [in Chemistry] in 1997.'
Additional information about Paul Boyer and adenosine triphosphate (APT)
is available in documents and on the Web.
Documents:
Occurrence
and Characteristics of 18O-exchange Reactions Catalyzed By Sodium-
and Potassium-dependent Adenosine Triphosphatases, DOE Technical
Report, 1972
Occurrence
and Characteristics of a Rapid Exchange of Phosphate Oxygens Catalyzed
by Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Vesicles, DOE Technical
Report, 1972
Isotopic Studies on Structure-function Relationships of Nucleic Acids and Enzymes. Three Year Progress Report, May 1972 -- October 1975, DOE Technical Report, 1975
A Perspective
of the Binding Change Mechanism for ATP Synthesis,
The FASEB Journal, Vol 3, 2164-2178, 1989
Energy
Capture and Use in Plants and Bacteria. Final Technical Report, DOE Technical Report, 1993
The
ATP Synthase – A Splendid Molecular Machine, Annual Review
of Biochemistry, Vol. 66: 717-749, 1997
Energy,
Life, and ATP, Nobel Lecture, 1997, Bioscience Reports, Vol. 18,
No. 3, 1998
ATP Synthesis
and the Binding Change Mechanism: The Work of
Paul D. Boyer, J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 23, 18, 2006
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Enzymatic Mechanism
of ATP Synthesis
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