{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"c4e1b24bd3de10b2019c14dc692958b626b661fd08499aab7fe53e6fd6161708","created":"2026-10-03T07:17:58Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"b5acbca97bebc69dc29486d44976f6bc248c398d731cc6e2e9b6751e7f98dc38","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"value","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"bio.quantum-biology.dna-proton-tunneling","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"open","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"The hydrogen atoms holding DNA base pairs together can jump across, briefly creating rare forms of the bases that pair wrongly when DNA is copied. The question is whether this quantum jumping produces a noticeable fraction of the natural mutations in living cells.","posed_since":"1963","precise":"For double proton transfer in Watson-Crick $G-C$ (and $A-T$) pairs producing tautomers such as $G*-C*$, compute the tautomer population in an open-quantum-system model at 310 K including tunneling and the bath, and the probability that a tautomer survives strand separation at the replication fork and is mispaired by the polymerase. Compare with spontaneous base-substitution rates of order $1e-10\\text{ to }1e-9$ per base per replication (approximately). An answer is the fraction of transition mutations attributable to proton-transfer tautomers, and the part of it due to tunneling as opposed to over-barrier transfer.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A calculation of tautomer formation and survival through replication with a realistic polymerase model, tested against measured mutation spectra in deuterated versus normal media or other isotope experiments.","status_note":"A 2022 Communications Physics open-quantum-systems study found G-C tautomer occupation of about 1.7e-4, with tunnelling exceeding over-barrier hopping by orders of magnitude, and a 2022 Communications Chemistry study found strand separation in the helicase can trap tautomers; polymerase misincorporation and comparison with measured mutation spectra remain untested.","title":"Does proton tunneling between DNA bases cause a measurable share of mutations?","topic_ref":"09ae11151c6960c350987cff295f5389414ff4280e786c847e9a83227e3d91ac"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"17df792d055dfe9862a9f6ab78baadff9a6110c060ae681215cf73e8681d751c","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"eb8076b260efd5797aa1f1d2409df496524cde4738111ad7954b6635e473d493","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"gdeHo_kBIKEjjxBn51-WtTsHVwzGBzsuHc4gkNfF45ngIiW316KA49CxdSxqFo_yzdx0CnlLOZ8JMxtZPp-OBQ"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"17df792d055dfe9862a9f6ab78baadff9a6110c060ae681215cf73e8681d751c","leaf_index":834}