Rotary Protein Motors

this article, we focus on these three motors. There are other protein motors that are thought to be rotary: certain members of the AAA protein family, including the helicases, and the portal protein in certain viruses that package their DNA into their viral capsid. However, there is currently no unequivocal evidence that they operate in a rotary fashion. We here restrict our attention mostly to ATP synthase because its basic operating principles are the best understood. By this, we mean that our understanding has progressed beyond the `cartoon' stage to detailed calculations that demonstrate that the ideas embodied in cartoon proposals can actually work and explain experimental dat