An Open Quantum Systems approach to proton tunnelling in DNA

TL;DR

This paper models proton tunnelling in DNA's hydrogen bonds using an open quantum systems approach, revealing significant quantum effects that could influence mutation rates and genetic stability.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed quantum dynamical model of proton transfer in DNA, accounting for environmental effects, and highlights the dominant quantum tunnelling contribution over classical mechanisms.

Findings

Quantum tunnelling greatly exceeds classical hopping in proton transfer.

Proton transfer occurs on timescales shorter than biological processes.

Tautomeric occupation probability suggests a notable role in mutations.

Abstract

One of the most important topics in molecular biology is the genetic stability of DNA. One threat to this stability is proton transfer along the hydrogen bonds of DNA that could lead to tautomerisation, hence creating point mutations. We present a theoretical analysis of the hydrogen bonds between the Guanine-Cytosine (G-C) nucleotide, which includes an accurate model of the structure of the base pairs, the quantum dynamics of the hydrogen bond proton, and the influence of the decoherent and dissipative cellular environment. We determine that the quantum tunnelling contribution to the process is several orders of magnitude larger than the contribution from classical over-the-barrier hopping. Due to this significant quantum contribution, we find that the canonical and tautomeric forms of G-C inter-convert over timescales far shorter than biological ones and hence thermal equilibrium is rapidly reached. Furthermore, we find a large tautomeric occupation probability of $1.73\times 10^{-4}$, suggesting that such proton transfer may well play a far more important role in DNA mutation than has hitherto been suggested. Our results could have far-reaching consequences for current models of genetic mutations.