Quantum effects in biological electron transfer

Over recent decades, quantum effects such as coherent electronic energy transfers, electron and hydrogen tunneling have been uncovered in biological processes. In this Perspective, we highlight some of the main conceptual and methodological tools employed in the field to investigate electron tunneli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP 2012-05, Vol.14 (17), p.592-5918
Main Authors: Lande, Aurlien de la, Babcock, Nathan S, ez, Jan, Lvy, Bernard, Sanders, Barry C, Salahub, Dennis R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological
Borders
Chemistry
Computer Simulation
Density functional theory
Electron transfer
Electron Transport
Electronics
Electrons
Energy transfer
Exact sciences and technology
General and physical chemistry
Hydrogen - chemistry
Kinetics
Mathematical analysis
Oxidation-Reduction
Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-NH Group Donors - chemistry
Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-NH Group Donors - metabolism
Proteins
Quantum Theory
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Summary:Over recent decades, quantum effects such as coherent electronic energy transfers, electron and hydrogen tunneling have been uncovered in biological processes. In this Perspective, we highlight some of the main conceptual and methodological tools employed in the field to investigate electron tunneling in proteins, with a particular emphasis on the methodologies we are currently developing. In particular, we describe our recent contributions to the development of a mixed quantum-classical framework aimed at describing physical systems lying at the border between the quantum and semi-classical worlds. We present original results obtained by combining our approach with constrained Density Functional Theory calculations. Moving to coarser levels of description, we summarize our latest findings on electron transfer between two redox proteins, thereby showing the stabilization of inter-protein, water-mediated, electron-transfer pathways. Electron transfer rates calculated for a Li-polyglycine-Li model as a function of donoracceptor distance, for varying decoherence times. The calculation method spans both adiabatic and nonadiabatic transfer regimes.
ISSN:1463-9076
1463-9084
DOI:10.1039/c2cp21823b