Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39903861›Full record

ReviewAnnual review of physical chemistry2025

Reaction Coordinates Are Optimal Channels of Energy Flow.

Ao Ma, Huiyu Li

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Annual review of physical chemistry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. AI-Physics-Experiment Trinity for Integrated Protein Dynamics Modeling.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Ao MaCenter for Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biology, Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA; email: aoma@uic.edu.
Huiyu LiCenter for Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biology, Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA; email: aoma@uic.edu.

Funding

Determining the spindle dynamics regulatory network with an integrated approachR01GM086536 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · PI MA, AO · 2010 to 2014
$1.5M
A Systematic Toolkit for Counteracting HIV Drug Resistance with Protein Structural DynamicsR21AI186936 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · PI MA, AO, ZHENG, YONG-HUI · 2024 to 2025
$412k
Understanding allostery from the perspective of protein dynamics and energy flowsR21AI162197 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · PI MA, AO · 2022 to 2023
$411k
NIAID NIH HHS R21 AI162197NIAID NIH HHS R21 AI186936NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM086536
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Reaction coordinates (RCs) are the few essential coordinates of a protein that control its functional processes, such as allostery, enzymatic reaction, and conformational change. They are critical for understanding protein function and provide optimal enhanced sampling of protein conformational changes and states. Since the pioneering work in the late 1990s, identifying the correct and objectively provable RCs has been a central topic in molecular biophysics and chemical physics. This review summarizes the major advances in identifying RCs over the past 25 years, focusing on methods aimed at finding RCs that meet the rigorous committor criterion, widely accepted as the true RCs. Notably, the newly developed physics-based energy flow theory and generalized work functional method provide a general and rigorous approach for identifying true RCs, revealing their physical nature as the optimal channels of energy flow in biomolecules.

Indexed as

ProteinsEnergy TransferModels, MolecularProtein ConformationThermodynamicsProteinsdimension reductionenergy flow theoryenhanced samplinggeneralized work functionalprotein conformational changereaction coordinate

Identifiers

PMID39903861
PMCPMC12137026

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.