Protonic Quantum Correlations in the H-Bond Dynamics of Nucleic Acids. Part 1. Conformational comparison of G-C with Benner's κ-π
✍ Scribed by C. Aris Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- German
- Volume
- 75
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0018-019X
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
A new base pair (called κ‐π) of Watson‐Crick type, with an H‐bond pattern different from that in A‐T and G‐C base pairs, has been recently synthesized by Benner and coworkers and shown to be stable and incorporable into duplex DNA and RNA by polymerases. This new base pair, which contains three H‐bonds, is compared with G‐C, in the framework of modern dynamical theory of quantum nonlocality and quantum correlations (also called Einstein‐Podolsky‐Rosen correlations). Connection with the traditional treatment of proton transfer in DNA base pairs, which uses the adiabatic approximation (thus considering the protons as classical particles), is explicitly made. As a result, the dynamics of the H‐bond pattern of G‐C is shown to exhibit a specific quantum‐mechanical phase stability (or: rigidity, stiffness), which is clearly missing in the case of κ‐π. This finding is discussed and illustrated, also in connection with recent quantum chemical calculations of proton transfers in DNA base pairs. Additionally, certain speculations concerning a probable ‘evolutionary advantage’ of G‐C with respect to κ‐π are shortly considered.