Ligand-binding interactions and stability.

Abstract

The reversible interaction or binding of ligands to biological macromolecules is fundamental to nearly every aspect of biochemistry and cell biology. Binding events typically do not occur in isolation in biochemistry, and are almost always coupled or linked to other reactions such as protonation changes, other ligand-binding interactions, structural transitions, and folding. It is rarely sufficient to simply state that something binds. An understanding of binding requires a measure of affinity, stoichiometry, and the contributions of linked reactions. Emphasis is placed here on defining binding and the influence of linkage on binding and stability using both spectroscopic and calorimetric data.