Recognition, Information, Complementarity

Information may be stored in the architecture of the receptor, in its binding sites and in the ligand layer surrounding bound 7 it is read out at the rate of formation and dissociation of the supermolecule. In addition to size and shape, a receptor is characterized by the dimensionality, the connectivity and the cyclic order of its structural graph these features have been used to define a ligand structural index L  

It may be useful to devise a word for complementary partners. One may propose pleromers (from the greek 7tA,f p(op.a complement p poa part) i.e., parts that complement each other. Complementary interaction sites, binding subunits, molecular fragments or species could be described by the bra-ket notation and I used in quantum mechanics to describe elements (vectors) belonging to conjugate spaces. Thus A B would mean that A and B are either complementary entities, (pleromers) or complementary fragments or just complementary interaction sites [1.20], 

High recognition by a receptor molecule p consists in a large difference between the binding free energies of a given substrate a and of the other substrates. It results in a marked deviation from the statistical distribution. In order to achieve large differences in affinity several factors must be taken into account  

1) steric (shape and size) complementarity between a and p, i.e. presence of convex and concave domains in the correct location on a and on p  

2) interactional complementarity, i.e. presence of complementary binding sites (electrostatic such as positive/negative, charge/dipole, dipole/dipole, hydrogen bond donor/acceptor, etc.) in the correct disposition on p and G so as to achieve complementary electronic and nuclear distribution (electrostatic, H-bonding and van der Waals) maps  

---

Information may be stored in the architecture ol the receptor, in its binding sites, and in Ihe ligand layer surrounding the hound substrate such as specified in Table I, It is read oul at the rate of formation and dissociation of the receptor-substrate complex. The success of this approach to molecular recognition lies in establishing a precise complementarity between the associating partners, i.c,. optimal information content of a receptor with respect to a given substrate. 

Molecular recognition The process of the selective inter-molecular interaction of one molecular entity with another to form a supermolecule or supramolecular assembly. The process is defined by the energetics and dynamics of the interactions and by the complementarity of the molecular information of the components. 

---