Quantum Genetics and the Aperiodic Solid: Some Aspects on the Biological Problems of Heredity, Mutations, Aging, and Tumors in View of the Quantum Theory of the DNA Molecule

Abstract

This chapter discusses aspects on the biological problems of heredity, mutations, aging, and tumors in view of the quantum theory of the DNA molecule. Each hydrogen bond in DNA consists of a proton shared between two electron lone pairs, and the genetic code is essentially a proton code. The probability of proton transfer in the hydrogen bonds of DNA is further discussed. By using the available charge orders for the π electrons of the base pairs, it is shown that the double-well potentials acting on the protons are highly asymmetric. At normal temperature, there is practically no proton transfer above the barrier, explaining the enormous stability of the genetic code. According to quantum mechanics, however, a proton is not a classical particle but a “wave packet,” which may penetrate a potential barrier by means of the “tunnel effect.” Depending on this proton tunneling, there is hence a very small but with time increasing probability that the normal base pairs A-T and G-C may spontaneously go over into the tautomeric pairs A*-T* and G*-C* through a “proton exchange” along the hydrogen bonds. Since the tautomeric bases have another pairing pattern, the proton exchange leads inevitably to errors in the genetic base sequence in the next duplication. The various possibilities suggested for the transcription of the genetic code through the formation of messenger RNA are studied, and the present status of the coding problem in protein synthesis is briefly reviewed.