Oxygen is the lifeblood of animals like ours. But for many species of microbe, the smallest whistle of the highly reactive element puts their delicate chemical devices at risk of rust.
The photosynthesizing bacterium Chlorobium tepidum has developed a sensible way to protect its light harvesting processes from the toxic effects of oxygen, using quantum effects to shift its energy production line to low gear.
A study conducted by scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Washington in St. Louis has shown how the bacterium throws a spatula into its quantum contents to tune its system so that it loses energy in the presence of oxygen, preventing it from damaging his photosynthetic apparatus.
Our daily experience of hard reality looks a million miles away from the emotional landscape of quantum influences, where the nature of the smear object is possible until observation is locked into place.
Far from hard fields clicking together, the particles that make up our atoms and molecules repel them with potential, refusing to settle until the tens of dice are high enough for a specific reflex. inevitable.
While this is clear, there are still questions about how often something so complex with a living system actively exploits the best features of quantum mechanics in the name of survival.
“Prior to this study, the scientific community saw quantum signatures generated in biological systems and asked the question: Were these results just the result of biology being derived from molecules, or did they have a purpose? ”explains University of Chicago chemist Greg Engel.
Evidence that quantum effects can be embedded into living systems has been building up for some time.
A recent study showed how changes in magnetic field affect electron spinning in light-sensitive proteins called cryptochromes, a phenomenon that may explain how some animals find the magnetosphere of our planet.
It is one thing to point to a small shift of quantum influence in a sensory response. Seeing it at the heart of an organic organism is something else.
“This is the first time we are seeing biology actively take advantage of quantum effects,” Engel says.
As a tight anaerobic bacterium, C. tepidum They do not want oxygen to run through the legs. What is useful in releasing energy from glucose inside our cells destroys the apparatus for converting light into chemical bonds inside the microbe.
A key part of this series of transformative reactions is a collection of proteins and pigments called the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex (FMO). It acts as an intermediary between the light-harvesting parts of the system and the factory floor where energy is chemically converted.
It was originally thought that FMO relied on quantum coherence to perform its work, matching the wave-like nature of grains to make electricity transfer possible.
Later studies reconsidered the role of this quantum phenomenon in the operation of FMO, stating that, if anything, quantum coherence could delay the whole process.
In this latest study of quantum consistency within FMO, researchers point to the potential impact of oxygen on the entire system.
Using an ultrafast laser spectroscopy device to capture details of the activity of the compound, the team demonstrated how the presence of oxygen could change how energy was directed from the light-harvesting parts into the re- beating. instead.
They found a pair of cysteine molecules sitting at the heart of the work, acting as a stimulus by releasing a proton when dealing with any oxygen present.
This lost proton directly affected the quantum devices within the FMO complex, effectively diverting energy away from areas that would otherwise be exposed to oxidation.
While causing the bacterium to be extracted from energy for a period of time, the quantum inhibition forces the cell to breathe until it is free from the toxic effects of oxygen.
“The simplicity of the device suggests that it could be found in other photosynthetic organisms throughout the evolutionary landscape,” says lead author Jake Higgins, a graduate student at the The University of Chicago Department of Chemistry.
“If more organisms are able to change quantum mechanical cups in their molecules to produce larger changes in biology, a whole set of effects could be selected by an unknown nature still about it. “
A whole world of quantum biology could be just waiting to be discovered.
This research was published in PNAS.