Abstract
For Christmas 1939 a girl friend presented me with a book token — I used it to buy Linus Pauling’s newly published Nature of the Chemical Bond 1 which I would otherwise not have been able to afford. I found in it the following passage:
“Although the hydrogen bond is not strong it has great significance in determining the properties of substances. Because of its small bond energy and the small activation energy involved in its formation and rupture, the hydrogen bond is especially suited to play a part in reactions occurring at normal temperatures. It has been recognized that hydrogen bonds restrain protein molecules to their native configurations, and I believe that as the methods of structural chemistry are further applied to physiological problems it will be found that the significance of the hydrogen bond for physiology is greater than that of any other single structural feature.”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
L. Pauling, The Nature of the Chemical Bond. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y. 1939.
A.T. Hagler, S. Lifson, J.Am.Chem.Soc. 96, 5327 (1974).
L. Pauling, The electronic structure of haemoglobin. In Haemoglobin, p. 57–66. Butterworth Scientific Publications, London 1949.
G. Fermi, M.F. Perutz, Haemoglobin and Myoglobin. Atlas of Molecular Structures in Biology. Eds. D.C. Phillips, F.M. Richards, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1981.
J. Schellman, Comptes rend. Lab. Carlsberg. Sér.chim. 29, 230 (1955).
W. Kauzmann, Adv. Protein Chem. 14, 1 (1959).
H.S. Frank, M.W. Evans, J.Chem.Phys. 13, 507 (1945).
C. Chothia, Nature 254, 304 (1975).
T. Asakura, K. Adachi, J.S. Wiley, L.W.M. Fung, C. Ho, J. Kilmartin, M.R Perutz, J.Mol.Biol. 104, 185 (1976).
S.E.V. Phillips, B.P. Schoenborn, Nature 292, 81 (1981).
R.J. Rohlfs, A.J. Mathews, T.E. Carver, J.S. Olson, B.A. Springer, K.D. Egeberg, S.G. Sligar, J.Biol.Chem. 265, 3168 (1990).
J.V. Kilmartin, J.H. Fogg, M.F. Perutz, Biochemistry 19, 3189 (1980).
M.F. Perutz, G. Fermi, D.J. Abraham, C. Poyart, E. Bursaux, J.Am.Chem.Soc. 108, 1064 (1986).
E. Tüchsen, C. Woodward, Biochemistry 26, 1918 (1987).
M. Levitt, M.F. Perutz, J.Mol.Biol. 201, 751 (1988).
W. Klemperer, M.W. Cronyn, A.K. Maki, G.C. Pimentel, J.Am.Chem.Soc. 76, 5846 (1954).
J.L. Knee, L.R. Khundkar, A.H. Zewail, J.Chem.Phys. 87, 115 (1987).
S. Suzuki, P.G. Green, R.E. Bumgarner, S. Dasgupta, W.A. Goddard III., G.A. Blake, Science 257, 942 (1992).
J.L. Atwood, F. Hamada, K.D. Robinson, G.W. Orr, R.L. Vincent, Nature 349, 683 (1991).
D.A. Rodham, S. Suzuki, R.D. Suenram, F.J. Lovas, S. Dasgupta, W.A. Goddard III., G.A. Blake, Nature 362, 735 (1993).
E. Arunan, H.S. Gutowsky, J.Chem.Phys. 98, 4294 (1993).
H.S. Rzepa, M.L. Webb, A.M. Slawin, D.J. Williams, J.Chem.Soc.Chem.Comm. 1991, 765.
A.T. McPhail, G.A. Sim, J.Chem.Soc.Chem.Comm. 1965, 125.
J.L. Sussman, M. Harel, F. Frolow, C. Oefner, A. Goldman, L. Toker, I. Silman, Science 253, 872 (1991).
J.-L. Galzi, F. Revah, D. Black, M. Goeldner, C. Hirth, J.P. Changeux, J.Biol.Chem. 265, 10430 (1990).
D.A. Dougherty, D.A. Stauffer, Science 250, 1558 (1990).
R. Loewenthal, J. Sancho, A.R. Fersht, J.Mol.Biol. 224, 759 (1992).
G. Waksman, D. Kominos, S.C. Robertson, N. Pant, D. Baltimore, R.B. Birge, D. Cowburn, H. Hanafusa, B.J. Mayer, M. Overduin, M.D. Resh, C.B. Rios, L. Silverman, J. Kuriyan, Nature 258, 646 (1992).
G. Parkinson, H. Berman, A. Gunasekera, R.H. Ebright (to be published).
A.R. Fersht, FEBS Lett. 325, 5 (1993).
F. Toda, K. Tanaka, T. Hyoda, T.C.W. Mak, Chem.Lett. 1988, 107.
W.J. Westerhaus, O. Knop, M. Falk, Can.J.Chem. 58, 1355 (1980).
J. Seetharaman, S.S. Rajan, R.J. Srinivasan, Cryst.Spectrosc. 23, 167 (1993).
G.V. Gridunova, V.E. Shklover, Y.T. Struchkov, B.A. Chayanov, Kristallografiya 28, 286 (1993).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Perutz, M.F. (1997). The Significance of the Hydrogen Bond for Physiology. In: Fleischhacker, W., Schönfeld, T. (eds) Pioneering Ideas for the Physical and Chemical Sciences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0268-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0268-9_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0270-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0268-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive