How quantum entanglement in DNA synchronizes double-strand breakage by type II restriction endonucleases

Abstract

Macroscopic quantum effects in living systems have been studied widely in pursuit of fundamental explanations for biological energy transport and sensing. While it is known that type II endonucleases, the largest class of restriction enzymes, induce DNA double-strand breaks by attacking phosphodiester bonds, the mechanism by which simultaneous cutting is coordinated between the catalytic centers remains unclear. We propose a quantum mechanical model for collective electronic behavior in the DNA helix, where dipole-dipole oscillations are quantized through boundary conditions imposed by the enzyme. Zero-point modes of coherent oscillations would provide the energy required for double-strand breakage. Such quanta may be preserved in the presence of thermal noise by the enzyme’s displacement of water surrounding the DNA recognition sequence. The enzyme thus serves as a decoherence shield. Palindromic mirror symmetry of the enzyme-DNA complex should conserve parity, because symmetric bond-breaking ceases when the symmetry of the complex is violated or when physiological parameters are perturbed from optima. Persistent correlations in DNA across longer spatial separations—a possible signature of quantum entanglement—may be explained by such a mechanism.

Water Bridging Dynamics of Polymerase Chain Reaction in the Gauge Theory Paradigm of Quantum Fields

“…By following the analysis presented in [2], one may introduce the normal-mode lowering operator a s,j and its conjugate raising operator a † s,j for the sth normal mode of the collective electronic oscillations, with s = 0, 1, . .…”

“…[2], London dispersion forces between DNA base pairs and the dynamics of delocalized electrons are shown to be responsible for the formation of molecular dipole structure. Fine tuning 2 of 18 of collective dynamical modes and synchronization of dipole vibrational modes between spatially separated nucleotides and enzymatic molecular subunits have been theorized to promote and sustain the catalytic activity of classes of enzymes which interact with DNA.…”

“…The result of our analysis is that in PCR amplification processes, and more generally in DNA-enzyme interactions, the spatial and temporal distributions of charges [1,2,17], interaction couplings, frequencies, amplitudes, and phase modulations [1,2] form a pattern of fields, that is to say, an electromagnetic (em) image of the DNA, in such a way that what the enzyme "sees" at long range, at the level of molecular biology, is such an em image of DNA in the surrounding water. The DNA and the enzyme "see" each other's em images by exchanging quanta of the radiative dipole waves induced by their presence in the water molecular matrix, which thus acts effectively as a bridge between the two (of course, until they are sufficiently close for water exclusion and direct binding to occur).…”

“…[1] and [2], we study the fundamental role of water dipole dynamics bridging the interaction between DNA and enzymatic proteins so as to allow polymerase chain reaction (PCR) processes to occur. Some of us have previously reported [3][4][5][6] the in vitro transduction of bacterial DNA sequences in water and in tumor cells.…”

Darwinian Evolution and Quantum Evolution are Complementary: A Perspective

“…For instance, enzymes, proteins essential for survival, can facilitate chemical reactions to occur in seconds or fraction of seconds, instead of what would otherwise take up to years should they occur spontaneously. It was recently shown that enzymes can catalyze such reactions at great speeds, in a teleportation like phenomenon termed quantum tunneling, whereby electrons and protons vanish from one place only to suddenly reappear at a second place where it is needed, and by skipping all other places in between [18,19]. This same phenomenon also occurs in the most important chemical reaction that made life possible on earth, photosynthesis.…”