Experimental assessment of the contribution of electrodynamic interactions to long-distance recruitment of biomolecular partners: Theoretical basis

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential role of resonant electrodynamic interactions in the long-distance recruitment of biomolecular partners, proposing an experimental approach to test their influence against thermal diffusion alone.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental methodology to investigate the active recruitment of biomolecular partners via electrodynamic interactions, combining theoretical modeling with advanced measurement techniques.

Findings

Proposes measuring encounter times to detect electrodynamic effects.

Develops theoretical models predicting influence of electromagnetic forces.

Suggests experimental validation of long-range biomolecular interactions.

Abstract

Highly specific spatiotemporal interactions between cognate molecular partners essentially sustain all biochemical transactions in the living matter. That such an exquisite level of accuracy may result from encountering forces solely driven by thermal diffusive processes is unlikely. Here we propose a yet unexplored strategy to experimentally tackle the long-standing question of a possibly active recruitment at a distance of cognate partners of biomolecular reactions via the action of resonant electrodynamic interactions. We considered two simplified models for a preliminary feasibility investigation of the devised methodology. By taking advantage of advanced experimental techniques nowadays available, we propose to measure the characteristic encounter time scales of dually-interacting biopartners and to compare them with theoretical predictions worked out both in the presence or absence of putative long-range electromagnetic forces.