Coarse-Grained Theory of Biological Charge Transfer with Spatially and Temporally Correlated Noise

Revisiting the Hole Size in Double Helical DNA with Localized Orbital Scaling Corrections

The extent of electronic wave function delocalization for the charge carrier (electron or hole) in double helical DNA plays an important role in determining the DNA charge transfer mechanism and kinetics. The size of the charge carrier's wave function delocalization is regulated by the solvation induced localization and the quantum delocalization among the π stacked base pairs at any instant of time. Using a newly developed localized orbital scaling correction (LOSC) density functional theory method, we accurately characterized the quantum delocalization of the hole wave function in double helical B-DNA. This approach can be used to diagnose the extent of delocalization in fluctuating DNA structures. Our studies indicate that the hole state tends to delocalize among 4 guanine-cytosine (GC) base pairs and among 3 adenine-thymine (AT) base pairs when these adjacent bases fluctuate into degeneracy. The relatively small delocalization in AT base pairs is caused by the weaker π-π interaction. This extent of delocalization has significant implications for assessing the role of coherent, incoherent, or flickering coherent carrier transport in DNA.

Assessing Possible Mechanisms of Micrometer-Scale Electron Transfer in Heme-Free Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili

The electrically conductive pili of Geobacter sulfurreducens are of both fundamental and practical interest. They facilitate extracellular and interspecies electron transfer (ET) and also provide an electrical interface between living and nonliving systems. We examine the possible mechanisms of G. sulfurreducens electron transfer in regimes ranging from incoherent to coherent transport. For plausible ET parameters, electron transfer in G. sulfurreducens bacterial nanowires mediated only by the protein is predicted to be dominated by incoherent hopping between phenylalanine (Phe) and tyrosine (Tyr) residues that are 3 to 4 Å apart, where Phe residues in the hopping pathways may create delocalized "islands." This mechanism could be accessible in the presence of strong oxidants that are capable of oxidizing Phe and Tyr residues. We also examine the physical requirements needed to sustain biological respiration via nanowires. We find that the hopping regimes with ET rates on the order of 10⁸ s^-1 between Phe islands and Tyr residues, and conductivities on the order of mS/cm, can support ET fluxes that are compatible with cellular respiration rates, although sustaining this delocalization in the heterogeneous protein environment may be challenging. Computed values of fully coherent electron fluxes through the pili are orders of magnitude too low to support microbial respiration. We suggest experimental probes of the transport mechanism based on mutant studies to examine the roles of aromatic amino acids and yet to be identified redox cofactors.

Machine Learning Prediction of DNA Charge Transport

First-principles calculations of charge transfer in DNA molecules are computationally expensive given that conducting charge carriers interact with intra- and intermolecular atomic motion. Screening sequences, for example, to identify excellent electrical conductors, is challenging even when adopting coarse-grained models and effective computational schemes that do not explicitly describe atomic dynamics. We present a machine learning (ML) model that allows the inexpensive prediction of the electrical conductance of millions of long double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) sequences, reducing computational costs by orders of magnitude. The algorithm is trained on short DNA nanojunctions with n = 3-7 base pairs. The electrical conductance of the training set is computed with a quantum scattering method, which captures charge-nuclei scattering processes. We demonstrate that the ML method accurately predicts the electrical conductance of varied dsDNA junctions tracing different transport mechanisms: coherent (short-range) quantum tunneling, on-resonance (ballistic) transport, and incoherent site-to-site hopping. Furthermore, the ML approach supports physical observations that clusters of nucleotides regulate DNA transport behavior. The input features tested in this work could be used in other ML studies of charge transport in complex polymers in the search for promising electronic and thermoelectric materials.

Why Are DNA and Protein Electron Transfer So Different?

The corpus of electron transfer (ET) theory provides considerable power to describe the kinetics and dynamics of electron flow at the nanoscale. How is it, then, that nucleic acid (NA) ET continues to surprise, while protein-mediated ET is relatively free of mechanistic bombshells? I suggest that this difference originates in the distinct electronic energy landscapes for the two classes of reactions. In proteins, the donor/acceptor-to-bridge energy gap is typically several-fold larger than in NAs. NA ET can access tunneling, hopping, and resonant transport among the bases, and fluctuations can enable switching among mechanisms; protein ET is restricted to tunneling among redox active cofactors and, under strongly oxidizing conditions, a few privileged amino acid side chains. This review aims to provide conceptual unity to DNA and protein ET reaction mechanisms. The establishment of a unified mechanistic framework enabled the successful design of NA experiments that switch electronic coherence effects on and off for ET processes on a length scale of multiple nanometers and promises to provide inroads to directing and detecting charge flow in soft-wet matter.

Effects of the Backbone and Chemical Linker on the Molecular Conductance of Nucleic Acid Duplexes

Scanning tunneling microscope break junction measurements are used to examine how the molecular conductance of nucleic acids depends on the composition of their backbone and the linker group to the electrodes. Molecular conductances of 10 base pair long homoduplexes of DNA, aeg-PNA, γ-PNA, and a heteroduplex of DNA/aeg-PNA with identical nucleobase sequence were measured. The molecular conductance was found to vary by 12 to 13 times with the change in backbone. Computational studies show that the molecular conductance differences between nucleic acids of different backbones correlate with differences in backbone structural flexibility. The molecular conductance was also measured for duplexes connected to the electrode through two different linkers, one directly to the backbone and one directly to the nucleobase stack. While the linker causes an order-of-magnitude increase in the overall conductance for a particular duplex, the differences in the electrical conductance with backbone composition are preserved. The highest molecular conductance value, 0.06G₀, was measured for aeg-PNA duplexes with a base stack linker. These findings reveal an important new strategy for creating longer and more complex electroactive, nucleic acid assemblies.

Microsecond Simulation of Electron Transfer in DNA: Bottom-Up Parametrization of an Efficient Electron Transfer Model Based on Atomistic Details

The transfer of electrons over long distances in complex molecular systems is a phenomenon of significance in both biochemistry and technology. In recent years, we have been developing efficient models to study ET in complex systems, including DNA as a prominent example. Ab initio and model approaches have been combined in an "on-the-fly" calculation of ET parameters, which can be used to propagate nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom simultaneously. These previous efforts have aimed at deriving an efficient nonadiabatic quantum mechanical-molecular mechanical (QM/MM) simulation scheme for ET, making nanosecond simulations of ET in realistic systems possible. This, however, is still insufficient for the treatment of large donor-bridge-acceptor systems, like the ET in DNA, overcoming long adenine bridges. Therefore, we have constructed a theoretical model in a bottom-up manner. All quantum-chemical as well as force-field calculations are substituted by theoretical models of the involved phenomena on a molecular level, including polarization and relaxation of the molecular environment, which are often omitted in other recently developed theoretical models of ET. A nonadiabatic simulation scheme is employed, and no assumptions regarding the ET mechanism are needed. Thus, the predictive power of the simulations is preserved, while pushing the limits of the accessible time scales beyond microseconds. This model-based simulation scheme is applied to ET in various DNA species. Good agreement with the "full" atomistic nonadiabatic QM/MM scheme is observed for the archetypal DNA ET systems, the polyA sequence, as well as the sequences GT_nGGG, containing adenines as bridge sites. Furthermore, ET in larger, more complex DNA sequences is simulated, and the results are discussed.