Bioenergetics deals with the very first energy transformation steps performed by living cells. Increased dissipation is the primary effect of processing external energy packages. Enzyme-supported charge separation is the minor but essential outcome for maintaining life. This book explores the usefulness of dissecting the entropy production of enzymes involved in cellular defenses, fermentation, respiration, and photosynthesis, assuming that tightly regulated dissipation is the hallmark of life.
Researchers, educators, and students of life sciences can find in this text many examples of how we can use the interdisciplinary approach to study cells' virtuoso ability to connect the microscopic to the macroscopic world. Each chapter is a self-contained unit with a glossary and selected references for further reading.
1. Mitchell’s Chemiosmotic Theory: The Background
2. Membrane Bioenergetics in a Nutshell
3. Irreversible Thermodynamics and Coupled Biochemical Reactions
4. What is Life?
5. Some Answers to Schrödinger’s Questions
6. Protonmotive Force
7. Membrane Proteins
8. The Maximum Entropy Production: Applications in the Bioenergetics of Bacterial Photosynthesis
9. Coupling Thermodynamics with Biological Evolution through Bioenergetics
10. Perfect Enzymes, According to Biochemists
11. ATP Synthase Molecular Motor
12. Bacteriorhodopsin: Light-harvesting Movie Star
13. The Protonmotive Force in Geochemistry and the Origin Question: Is the Origin of Bioenergetics Connected with the Origin of Life?
14. Integrating Glycolysis with Oxidative Phosphorylation by Hexokinases
15. Bioenergetics of the Brain, Aging, and Cancer Cells as Bridged by α-synuclein
16. Retrospections, Contrasting Viewpoints, Incentives, Challenges, Prospects, and Conclusions
Biography
Davor Juretić is Professor Emeritus and a scientific adviser at the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences in Split, Croatia. His initial education in theoretical physics led to biophysics, bioinformatics, and bioenergetics training in the USA. He established the Biophysics Ph.D. Program at the University of Split. His publications are from the research fields of peptide antibiotics, predictions of membrane buried protein helical segments, and applications of the maximum entropy production principle in physics and biology.
