Gary F wrote, in discussing children's ability to learn a language:
"They learn it because they are primed to, not (060514-1) because they are forced to." This reminded me of the mechanism of enzyme catalysis, since, according to the pre-fit hypothesis of enzyme catalysis [1], it can be stated that Enzymes transform their substrates because they are (060514-2) primed (or pre-fit) to bind their substrates, but not because they are forced (or induced) to fit them. There are two schools of thought concerning how an enzyme works-- (a) the induced-fit hypopthesis proposed by Koshland in the 1958 and (b) the pre-fit hypothesis that I proposed in the 1974 [2; pp. 433-434]. The experimental and theoretical evidence favoring the latter hypothesis was recently reviewed in [1]. If the pre-fit hypothesis is true, the following inference may be made: Since learning at the brain level is obviously supported (060514-3) by enzyme catalyses on the molecular level, it may not be surprising to find that there exist some common mechanistic principles operating between learning and enzyme catalysis, which may be viewed as an instantiation of Peirces principle of synechism. With all the best. Sung __________________________________________________ Sungchul Ji, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy Rutgers University Piscataway, N.J. 08855 732-445-4701 www.conformon.net References: [1] Ji, S. (2012). The Kinetics of Ligand-Protein Interactions: The "Pre-fit" Mechanism Based on the Generalized Franck-Condon Principle. In: Molecular Theory of the Living Cell: Concepts, Molecular Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications. Springer, New York. Pp. 209-214. PDF available at conformon.net under Publications > Book chapters. [2] Ji, S. (1974). Energy and Negentropy in Enzymic Catalysis. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 227:419-437. PDF available at conformon.net under Publications > Refereed Articles.
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