Physics

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Biological system

Energy (signal processing)

Mathematics

Mechanics

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Biology

Information transfer

Statistical physics

Statistics

Molecular machine

Philosophy

Chemical physics

Molecular motor

Chemistry

Materials science

Energy flow

Chemical energy

Information flow

Molecule

Flow (mathematics)

Computer science

Linguistics

Quantum mechanics

Realization (probability)

Chemical thermodynamics

Telecommunications

Thermodynamics

Nature Chemistry

Information is physical, a realization that has transformed the physics of measurement and communication. However, the flow between information, energy and mechanics in chemical systems remains largely unexplored. Here we analyse a minimalist autonomous chemically driven molecular motor in terms of information thermodynamics, a framework that quantitatively relates information to other thermodynamic parameters. The treatment reveals how directional motion is generated by free energy transfer from chemical to mechanical (conformational and/or co-conformational) processes by ‘energy flow’ and ‘information flow’. It provides a thermodynamic level of understanding of molecular motors that is general, complements previous analyses based on kinetics and has practical implications for machine design. In line with kinetic analysis, we find that power strokes do not affect the directionality of chemically driven machines. However, we find that power strokes can modulate motor velocity, the efficiency of free energy transfer and the number of fuel molecules consumed per cycle. This may help explain the role of such (co-)conformational changes in biomachines and illustrates the interplay between energy and information in chemical systems.                                                                  Information is physical, but the flow between information, energy and mechanics in chemical systems remains largely unexplored. Now, an autonomous molecular motor has been analysed with information thermodynamics, which relates information to other thermodynamic parameters. This treatment provides a general thermodynamic understanding of molecular motors, with practical implications for machine design.

Insights from an information thermodynamics analysis of a synthetic molecular motor