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Energy propagation along polypeptide alpha-helix: experimental data and ab initio zone structure
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
We report new theoretical and experimental results that may significantly change our ideas on the workings of
life. We performed ab initio analysis of the band structure of periodic α-helix polypeptides (PP) in function of the
chain length. Three different calculation approaches were tested: (a) PP described semiempirically as a onedimensional object, with the amino acids substituted by effective atoms; (b) density functional theory (DFT) as
implemented in WIEN2k approach, and (c) CRYSTAL-17 software package. The approach (c) was used for the
detailed ab initio analysis, as it provided better accuracy in less computation time. We found that the bandgap
was weakly dependent on the PP composition, with the asymptotic values in the 0.43 – 0.63 eV range. We
estimated the effective electron and hole masses, their mean free path and mobility for the glycine-PP. The
electron mobility in the PP conductive band was about half of that in polycrystalline silicon. The PP zone
structure was used to study the mechanism of energy transfer along the PP. The current-voltage (I/V) characteristics of Müller cell (MC) intermediate filaments (IFs) from porcine retina were experimentally measured.
The measured I/V characteristics show that the IFs behave as semiconductors. These results were discussed in
light of the presently reported PP zone structure theory. The results obtained may open new areas in biomedical
research and applications.
Description
Keywords
Intermediate-filaments Protein structures Muller cells Model Quantum Selectivity Generation Dynamics Solitons Density Polypeptide α-helix Zone structure analysis ab initio calculations Energy propagation mechanism Electron mobility Effective electron mass
Citation
Publisher
Elsevier