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"Mike McWilliams" <michael.mcwilliams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1121789393.455928@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>> enzymes) involved, and because of the multiple steps that living
>> organisms go through to oxidise sugars to CO2 and water. However, there
>> is nothing preventing such a chemical reaction from proceeding from sugar
>> to carbon dioxide and water in a single step, given the right equipment.
>
> See, I hadn't even thought of that, but it certainly could be true. I
> really hope the protein folding conundrum is resolved while I'm alive...
> that way people will eventually be able to design enzymes to do things
> like the complete oxidation of sugar.... a super duper ATP synthase or
> something
Don't forget the constraints of this problem. The main reason that living
systems don't do this now is the temperature requirement. Complex organic
molecules use hydrogen bonding to perform much of their more subtle folding
tricks. Hydrogen bonds are very weak. Once higher temperatures (e.g.,
usually somewhat less than 100 deg C) "jiggle" such molecules and upset the
hydrogen bonding involved, they get denatured and don't work anymore. That
is why glucose gets burned in multiple steps with multiple catalysts (aka,
enzymes) - it must be burned at an exceedingly low temperature.
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