Thermal stability of solitons in protein \(\alpha\)-helices. (English) Zbl 1498.92139

Georgiev, Danko D.; Glazebrook, James F.

Chaos Solitons Fractals 155, Article ID 111644, 19 p. (2022).

Summary: Protein \(\alpha\)-helices provide an ordered biological environment that is conducive to soliton-assisted energy transport. The nonlinear interaction between amide I excitons and phonon deformations induced in the hydrogen-bonded lattice of peptide groups leads to self-trapping of the amide I energy, thereby creating a localized quasiparticle (soliton) that persists at zero temperature. The presence of thermal noise, however, could destabilize the protein soliton and dissipate its energy within a finite lifetime. In this work, we have computationally solved the system of stochastic differential equations that govern the quantum dynamics of protein solitons at physiological temperature, \(T=310\) K, for either a single isolated \(\alpha\)-helix spine of hydrogen bonded peptide groups or the full protein \(\alpha\)-helix comprised of three parallel \(\alpha\)-helix spines. The simulated stochastic dynamics revealed that although the thermal noise is detrimental for the single isolated \(\alpha\)-helix spine, the cooperative action of three amide I exciton quanta in the full protein \(\alpha\)-helix ensures soliton lifetime of over 30 ps, during which the amide I energy could be transported along the entire extent of an 18-nm-long \(\alpha\)-helix. Thus, macromolecular protein complexes, which are built up of protein \(\alpha\)-helices could harness soliton-assisted energy transport at physiological temperature. Because the hydrolysis of a single adenosine triphosphate molecule is able to initiate three amide I exciton quanta, it is feasible that multiquantal protein solitons subserve a variety of specialized physiological functions in living systems.

MSC:

92D20	Protein sequences, DNA sequences
82C22	Interacting particle systems in time-dependent statistical mechanics
82C31	Stochastic methods (Fokker-Planck, Langevin, etc.) applied to problems in time-dependent statistical mechanics
60J70	Applications of Brownian motions and diffusion theory (population genetics, absorption problems, etc.)

Keywords:

davydov soliton; Langevin dynamics; protein \(\alpha\)-helix; soliton lifetime; thermal noise

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