Causing a stir: biomolecular mixing.
A proposition is made, and an argument presented for the existence of molecular stirrers inside the living cell. These, as hypothesized, are rotating proteins with long arms mixing the cellular milieu, which is essential for various kinds of interactions. There are no proteins found performing this role, yet. Thus this proposition could be of importance for the progress of scientific finding, by being on the look out for such proteins. Protein stirrers could be rotary motors quite fundamental to the living cell and experimental findings that could suggest the presence of such a stirring machinery are discussed. Possible experimental approaches towards testing this hypothesis are presented.
Deshpande
M
M
National Centre for Cell Science, NCCS Complex, Pune-411007, India. manisha_desh@hotmail.com
D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D008967:Molecular Biology; D009068:Movement