Specificity in Biological Interactions

List of the Participants Xl Audience of the Holy Father XVll SCIENTIFIC PAPERS Introductory Remarks. Electrostatics and Specificity III Nucleic Acid Reactions (B. Pullman). . . 1 Theoretical Studies of Molecular Recognition and Ca- lysis by Enzymes (H. A. Scheraga) . . . . 21 Molecular Dynamics of the DNA Double Helix (M. Levitt) 43 Simulating the Energetics and Dynamics of Enzymatic Reactions (A. Warshel) . . . . . . . . . . 59 Structural Studies of DNA-Protein Interactions (B. W. Matthews) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions, Models and Reality (W. Saenger) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 99 Studying Enzyme-Substrate Interactions by Site-Directed Mutagenesis (A. R. Fersht and G. Winter) . . . . . 123 Sequence Dependence of DNA Conformation, Dynamics and Interactions in Solution (D. ]. Patel, S. A. Kozlowski, A. Pardi, R. Bhatt, S. Ikuta and K. Itakura) 133 Elements of Specific Recognition of Non-Intercalating - gands in the Interaction with DNA (C. Zimmer and G. Luck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 VIlI PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM SCRIPTA VARIA 55 Interactions of Transfer RNAs with their Biological Partners (J. P. Ebel, R. Giege, D. Moras and P. Remy) 207 Antibody Structure and Specificity (D. R. Davies) . 249 Specificity of Ionophore-Cation Interaction (Yu. A. - chinnikov and V. T. Ivanov) . . . . . . . 263 Theoretical Analysis of Factors Responsible for Specificity in Ionophore-Cation Interactions (A. Pullman) 303 FOREWORD The specificity of biological interactions was the subject of a Study Group that met at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences from Novem­ ber 9-11, 1983. This theme is one of the most advanced fields in modern biology.