I have a fascination in biology and have wondered how proteins designed to make certain molecules like DNA or ATP, etc., create the chemical bonds between the atoms when making it.
I understand that they don’t make them from scratch, they usual just “smash” two different molecules together, but still how are the bonds created?
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Proteins can exploit some tricks of chemistry to make a chemical reaction more like to happen. This is usually due to the shape of the protein; it might be able to “hold” the two component molecules in just the right way that they can react together. Meanwhile, if the two molecules were just floating around willy-nilly, it would take a lot of time before they happened to contact each other in that particular way to allow the reaction to occur.
In this sense, proteins create additional chances for the molecules to react; they’re not causing the chemical reaction to happen as much as making it easier for it to happen.
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