GREEN: PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION, ENZYME CHEMISTRY 5^9 



erated by the process of glycolysis. Because of the close proximity 

 of adenosine triphosphatase and myosin, some of the chemical energy 

 of hydrolysis is absorbed by the myosin molecule, which then under- 

 goes simultaneous contraction. In other words, myosin is acting as a 

 kind of transformer element for the conversion of chemical energy to 

 mechanical energy. 



We have to consider the possibility that, just as myosin is specialized 

 for muscular contraction, chlorophyll or visual purple for photochem- 

 ical reactions, and hemoglobin for oxygen transfer, so there may be one 

 or more proteins in nerve specialized for the reactions which underlie 

 the propagation of a nerve impulse. The knowledge that acetylcholine 

 and adrenaline are the chemical agents involved in nerve conduction, 

 is merely the introduction to the problem of mechanism. Undoubtedly, 

 these substances react with special proteins. It is the transformations 

 which these special proteins then undergo that is the basis of the phe- 

 nomenon of nerve transmission. 



REFERENCES 



1. Woolley, D. W. 



1945. Science. 100: 579. 



2. Green, D. E. 



1946. Currents in Biochemical Research: 149. Interscience Publishers, Inc., 

 New York. 



3. Green, D. E. 



1941. Advances in Enzvmology. 1: 177. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New 

 York. 



4. McFarlane, R. G., & J. D. MacLennan 

 1945. Lancet 2: 328. 



5. Price, W. H., Carl F. Cori, & Sidney P. Colowick 



1945. J. Biol. Chem. 160: 633. 



6. Beadle, G. W. 



1946. Currents in Biochemical Research: 1. Interscience Publishers, Inc., 

 New York. 



