Elsevier, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 5-6(16), p. 465-471
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2012.10.014
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Biological catalysis is a complex chemical process that involves not only electronic reorganization in the substrate but also the reorganization of the catalyst. This complexity is even larger in the case of post-transcriptional and post-translational modifications which may involve the interaction between two biomacromolecules. However, the development over the past decades of new computational methods and strategies is offering a detailed molecular picture of the catalytic event and a deep understanding of the mechanisms of chemical reactions in biological environments. Here we review the efforts made in the last years to model catalysis in post-transcriptional and post-translational processes. We stress on the advantages and problems of the different computational strategies and their applicability in different cases