Macromolecular Machines

Macromolecular machines are assemblies with several active sites that facilitate the co-localization and/or coupling of enzymatic activities. Multi-enzyme complexes are a form of macromolecular machine that catalyses sequential chemical processes and is used by many metabolic pathways. For example, yeast fatty acid synthase, is a huge 2 MDa macromolecular machine that assembles into a barrel-shaped particle to enable synthesis via a series of repeated processes. The formation of macromolecular assemblies can be advantageous for metabolic pathways because they can boost catalytic efficiency, safeguard intermediates, and give a high level of control. Ribosome synthesis is a key biological pathway that is dependent on a number of macromolecular machines.