How the "Enzymatic Demon" works: Information and feedback mechanism (IMAGE)
Caption
A transition diagram illustrating how an enzyme functions as Maxwell's demon via Enhanced Enzyme Diffusion (EED). 'S' and 'P' represent the substrate and product, respectively. The black face indicates the enzyme in its normal state, while the yellow face represents the high-motility (EED) state. When the enzyme catalyses a substrate, this event is "recorded" as a transition to the EED state. This memory is used to suppress the probability of the reverse reaction, causing a deviation from chemical equilibrium (Red arrow). Conversely, the information is lost and no deviation occurs if the intrinsic diffusion is already too high (Grey arrow), if the EED state decays too quickly (Blue arrow), or if the reverse reaction occurs before the enzyme can diffuse away (Green arrow).
Credit
Hatakeyama et al. Adapted from Physical Review Letters
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CC BY-NC-ND