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RESISTANCE TO NEW IDEAS. “Despite strong evidence to support the abundance of functional macromolecular assemblies in vivo, biochemistry developed mainly from the view that cells were membrane-enclosed bags of homogenous cytosol in which polymers and metabolites diffused randomly to interact with each other.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

SELECTION FOR FUNCTIONALITY. “McConkey predicted that most cellular proteins interact extensively and transiently with other macromolecules to produce a functional ‘quinary’ structure that constrains protein evolution by accommodating only those mutations with no functional implications, i.e. noninteracting sites.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

REACTION STRINGS. “The kinetic advantages of an immobilised system of malate dehydrogenase and citrate synthase over the free enzyme system were subsequently demonstrated.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR MACHINES. “Alberts urged biochemists to ‘think of molecular genetics in terms of “protein machines” rather than in terms of sequential reactions that are carried out by individual proteins’. This provocative insight emphasised the need for ordered, sophisticated machinery in complex living systems, thus ‘freeing the biological process from the necessity of relying on random motions’.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

MACROMOLECULAR ASSEMBLIES. “An early demonstration of the autonomous, modular and cooperative nature of functional assemblies or ‘protein machines’ was made by Alberts who presented the DNA replication apparatus (comprising > 40 proteins).” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

IN VITRO. “Buffered aqueous solutions became the preferred milieu for the characterisation of pure proteins. Thus, biochemistry tended towards reductionist studies focused on a single macromolecule in ideal solutions.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

OLD BIOCHEMICAL CONCEPT. “The lack of order in this ‘random’ cytoplasm led to the idea that it was unnecessary to study protein behaviour in the context of the intracellular environment.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

EMERGENT CHEMISTRY. “Just as supramolecular chemistry is inspired by biology, there now arises the need for cell biologists to take note of chemical systems that show emergent physicochemical properties.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

IN VITRO IS NOT SUFFICIENT. “The emergent physicochemical properties of the cell interior must be identified. This cannot be accomplished by reductionist dissections. The grand challenge is to capture dynamic intracellular structures in vivo directly as they form and function.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn

CELLULAR HYPERSTRUCTURES. “These architectures span nanometre to micrometre length scales with lifetimes ranging from nanoseconds to several minutes. Thus, quinary structure serves to bridge the molecular and cellular worlds.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.13744/full View in LinkedIn