Biomolecular motors: the F1-ATPase paradigm

A review and discussion.  The realization that many essential functions of living cells are performed by nanoscale motors consisting of protein complexes has given rise to an intense effort to understand their mechanisms.  Considerable progress has been made in the past 2 yr by a combination of biophys. techniques and theor. anal.  Single-mol. studies have played a spectacular role for a variety of motors including kinesin, myosin, and polymerases.  The understanding of F1-ATPase, the smallest biomol. rotary motor, has made particular progress by the interplay of exptl. and theor. studies; the latter have provided information not available from expt.