Quantum physics of living things: excitonic dynamics on the DNA strand and its possible impact on epigenetic phenomena

Epigenetic modifications serve as a bridge between DNA sequences and responses to external stimuli, playing a key role in human physiology and disease development. However, unlike quantum phenomena such as proton tunneling, which are known to influence mutation mechanisms, the role of quantum physics in epigenetics remains largely unexplored. In this study, we focus on photoexcited energy and charge transfer processes in biologically relevant systems, merging insights from biology, chemistry, and physics. Extensive research has been conducted on photoexcited charge dynamics in DNA due to their role in causing lesions, altering DNA binding, and triggering carcinogenic mutations. We adopt a mesoscopic approach, utilizing existing literature to create a tight-binding model that accurately captures essential aspects of correlated quantum charge dynamics. Our model is designed for efficiency, enabling large-scale studies on DNA double strands. We particularly analyze the average excitonic lifetime and coherence length generated by external sources across 16,384 DNA sequences of length 7 (14 bases in total), providing a benchmark for quantum effects. Our results align with experimental data and offer a detailed characterization of sequence correlations within the studied ensemble.

The authors appreciate the financial support of the Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST) and the BMBF through the QCOMP project in Cluster4Future QSens.