Unifying Light-induced Processes in Biology- Long Time Dynamics, Quantum Chaos, and System-Environment Interactions in Vision and Photosynthesis
Abstract
Processes initiated by the absorption of light play a fundamental role in biology. Prominent examples include visual perception and photosynthesis, wherein the initial photoexcitation induces a series of molecular events in the excited state that trigger subsequent chemical processes. From a fundamental perspective both of these processes couple the incident radiation to the protein environment through the active molecular chromophore. Recent computational studies have demonstrated an extraordinary feature of retinal-in-rhodopsin isomerization, as manifest in the standard two-state-two-mode model of this first step in vision. In particular, the isomerization quantum yield has been seen to be extraordinarily sensitive to system parameters, varying over a wide range when parameters are altered over a small range. The possibility that this is a display of quantum chaos in a biological process is highly significant, and serves as the stimulus and motivation for this joint research proposal. Parameter sensitivity in retinal isomerization and energy transfer systems will be examined formally, computationally and experimentally. A successful demonstration of quantum chaos will open up an entirely new research direction, related to issues of system selectivity at the molecular level in biological systems. Specifically, it motivates the important questions as to whether such sensitivity is (a) evidence of quantum chaos in biology, and (b) manifest in other light-activated biological processes. In addition, if light-induced biological processes generally display extreme sensitivity to parameters, it raises the question of possibly evolution driven Goldilocks tuning in biology – i.e. specific parameter choices that optimize the biological process. The proposed work, both computational and experimental, promises new insight into the universal properties of chromophore-protein interactions and the role of quantum chaos in biological function.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502110098
Entities
People
- Jennifer P Ogilvie
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
- United States Air Force