Dynamical principles in biological processes: A model of charge migration in proteins and DNA

The generalized master equations (GMEs) that contain multiple time scales h ave been derived quantum mechanically, The GME method has then been applied to a model of charge migration in proteins that invokes the hole hopping b etween local amino acid sites driven by the torsional motions of the floppy backbones. This model is then applied to analyze the experimental results for sequence-dependent longrange hole transport in DNA reported by Meggers et al. [Meggers, E., Michel-Beyerle, M. E., & Giese, B. (1998) J. Am. Chem. Sec. 120, 12950-12955]. The model has also been applied to analyze the exp erimental results of femtosecond dynamics of DNA-mediated electron transfer reported by Zewail and co-workers [Wan, C., Fiebig, T., Kelley, S. O., Tre adway, C. R., Barton, J. K. & Zewail, A. H. (1999) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U SA 96, 6014-6019]. The initial events in the dynamics of protein folding ha ve begun to attract attention. The GME obtained in this paper will be appli cable to this problem.