It’s difficult to even imagine as to what treasure our DNA holds.
The genetic information it carries holds instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all known organisms and many viruses.
We are aware of the double helical structure DNA has, both the strands in it store the same biological information.
It is this information that gets replicated and transmitted from one progeny to the next by reproduction.
A new characteristics emerge when the recombination of such different genetic codes are coupled into each other. Recombinations leads to variations and thus variations invite Evolution.
However it is interesting to know that a large part of DNA (more than 98% for humans) is non-coding means Junk DNA as these sections do not synthesize any protein or code for any genetic info.
Therefore over a lifetime, our DNA can submit to mutations, which can be good as well as bad.
Mutation is a change that occurs in our DNA sequence(off course non-junk), either due to mistakes in copying or even due to some environmental factors such as UV light, sunlight, cigarette smoke and radiation.
Often cells can recognize any potentially mutation-causing damage and repair it before it becomes a fixed mutation but if not repaired, it replicated for life.
However recently an innovative research paper published in journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics by Surrey’s Leverhulme Quantum Biology Doctoral Training Centre has confirmed that Quantum mechanics plays a role in biological processes and causes mutations in DNA, using state-of-the-art computer simulations and quantum mechanical methods.
Although the lifetime of such mutations is short, the team from Surrey has revealed that they can still survive the DNA replication mechanism inside cells and could potentially have health consequences to humans.
Proton tunneling is a process when a proton ostensibly disappears from a place and reappears elsewhere on the other side of a physical or energetic barrier.
Yes, it happens and when it happens within a DNA molecule, it can essentially move atoms to the wrong place, leading to a mutation in the genetic code.
“Many have long suspected that the quantum world — which is weird, counter-intuitive, and wonderful — plays a role in life as we know it.
While the idea that something can be present in two places at the same time might be absurd to many of us, this happens all the time in the quantum world, and our study confirms that quantum tunneling also happens in DNA at room temperature.” says The lead author and Surrey chemist Marco Sacchi in a press release.
Also “There is still a long and exciting road ahead of us to understand how biological processes work on the subatomic level but our study — and countless others over the recent years — have confirmed quantum mechanics are at play.”
This theory outshines because it has invoked quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that rules the behavior of particles in the subatomic realm.
The idea has given some insight into the origins of genetic mutations, which over the centuries have given rise to the variety of species in the biological kingdom, and in the short term can lead to the development of diseases like cancer, sickle cell anaemia etc.
Also plants and animals may already be carrying out superfast quantum operations within their own cells although their continuity at temperatures within cell is difficult.
But the Human body is a mystery, let’s begin to unravel whatever is under its sheath.