Experimental Physics I , University of Augsburg , Augsburg 86159 , Germany.
Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) , Schellingstr. 4 , München 80799 , Germany.
Langmuir. 2018 Apr 24;34(16):4914-4919. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b01613. Epub 2018 Apr 11.
Currently, biological signaling is envisaged as a combination of activation and movement, triggered by local molecular interactions and molecular diffusion, respectively. However, here, we suggest that other fundamental physical mechanisms might play an at least equally important role. We have recently shown that lipid interfaces permit the excitation and propagation of sound pulses. Here, we demonstrate that these reversible perturbations can control the activity of membrane-embedded enzymes without a requirement for molecular transport. They can thus facilitate rapid communication between distant biological entities at the speed of sound, which is here on the order of 1 m/s within the membrane. The mechanism described provides a new physical framework for biological signaling that is fundamentally different from the molecular approach that currently dominates the textbooks.
目前，生物信号被设想为激活和运动的组合，分别由局部分子相互作用和分子扩散触发。然而，在这里，我们认为其他基本的物理机制可能至少起到同样重要的作用。我们最近表明，脂质界面允许声脉冲的激发和传播。在这里，我们证明这些可逆的扰动可以控制膜嵌入酶的活性，而不需要分子运输。因此，它们可以促进在膜内速度约为 1m/s 的声速下，在远距离生物实体之间的快速通信。所描述的机制为生物信号提供了一个新的物理框架，与目前主导教科书的分子方法有根本的不同。
