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Life 2012, 2(4), 377-391; doi:10.3390/life2040377
Article
Quantum Biological Channel Modeling and Capacity Calculation
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Arizona, 1230 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson 85721, AZ, USA
Received: 12 October 2012; in revised form: 4 December 2012 / Accepted: 5 December 2012 / Published: 10 December 2012
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Abstract: Quantum mechanics has an important role in photosynthesis, magnetoreception, and evolution. There were many attempts in an effort to explain the structure of genetic code and transfer of information from DNA to protein by using the concepts of quantum mechanics. The existing biological quantum channel models are not sufficiently general to incorporate all relevant contributions responsible for imperfect protein synthesis. Moreover, the problem of determination of quantum biological channel capacity is still an open problem. To solve these problems, we construct the operator-sum representation of biological channel based on codon basekets (basis vectors), and determine the quantum channel model suitable for study of the quantum biological channel capacity and beyond. The transcription process, DNA point mutations, insertions, deletions, and translation are interpreted as the quantum noise processes. The various types of quantum errors are classified into several broad categories: (i) storage errors that occur in DNA itself as it represents an imperfect storage of genetic information, (ii) replication errors introduced during DNA replication process, (iii) transcription errors introduced during DNA to mRNA transcription, and (iv) translation errors introduced during the translation process. By using this model, we determine the biological quantum channel capacity and compare it against corresponding classical biological channel capacity. We demonstrate that the quantum biological channel capacity is higher than the classical one, for a coherent quantum channel model, suggesting that quantum effects have an important role in biological systems. The proposed model is of crucial importance towards future study of quantum DNA error correction, developing quantum mechanical model of aging, developing the quantum mechanical models for tumors/cancer, and study of intracellular dynamics in general.
Keywords: quantum biology; bioinformatics; DNA quantum information; biological channels; channel capacity
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MDPI and ACS Style
Djordjevic, I.B. Quantum Biological Channel Modeling and Capacity Calculation. Life 2012, 2, 377-391.
AMA StyleDjordjevic IB. Quantum Biological Channel Modeling and Capacity Calculation. Life. 2012; 2(4):377-391.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDjordjevic, Ivan B. 2012. "Quantum Biological Channel Modeling and Capacity Calculation." Life 2, no. 4: 377-391.