Functional quantum biology in photosynthesis and magnetoreception
arXiv:1205.0883
Abstract
Is there a functional role for quantum mechanics or coherent quantum effects in biological processes? While this question is as old as quantum theory, only recently have measurements on biological systems on ultra-fast time-scales shed light on a possible answer. In this review we give an overview of the two main candidates for biological systems which may harness such functional quantum effects: photosynthesis and magnetoreception. We discuss some of the latest evidence both for and against room temperature quantum coherence, and consider whether there is truly a functional role for coherence in these biological mechanisms. Finally, we give a brief overview of some more speculative examples of functional quantum biology including the sense of smell, long-range quantum tunneling in proteins, biological photoreceptors, and the flow of ions across a cell membrane.
arXiv comment31 pages, 9 figures
References in corpus (27)
- Electron transport through double quantum dots
- Environment-Assisted Quantum Walks in Photosynthetic Energy Transfer
- Long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic complexes at physiological temperature
- The importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes
- Complete Characterization of a Quantum Process: the Two-Bit Quantum Gate
- Highly efficient energy excitation transfer in light-harvesting complexes: The fundamental role of noise-assisted transport
- Quantum entanglement in photosynthetic light harvesting complexes
- Exact dynamics of dissipative electronic systems and quantum transport: Hierarchical equations of motion approach
- Sustained Quantum Coherence and Entanglement in the Avian Compass
- Noise-assisted energy transfer in quantum networks and light-harvesting complexes
- Excitons in a Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting System: A Combined Molecular Dynamics/Quantum Chemistry and Polaron Model Study
- Atomistic study of the long-lived quantum coherences in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex
- Entanglement and entangling power of the dynamics in light-harvesting complexes
- Efficient energy transfer in light-harvesting systems, I: optimal temperature, reorganization energy, and spatial-temporal correlations
- Correlation-dependent coherent to incoherent transitions in resonant energy transfer dynamics
- Quantum control and entanglement in a chemical compass
- Could humans recognize odor by phonon assisted tunneling?
- Limits of quantum speedup in photosynthetic light harvesting
- Exciton dynamics and Quantumness of energy transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex
- Direct Characterization of Quantum Dynamics
- Monitoring Ion Channel Function In Real Time Through Quantum Decoherence
- Exciton Dynamics in Photosynthetic Complexes: Excitation by Coherent and Incoherent Light
- On the Equivalence of Quantum and Classical Coherence in Electronic Energy Transfer
- Quantum process tomography of molecular dimers from two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy I: General theory and application to homodimers
- Quantum limit for avian magnetoreception: How sensitive can a chemical compass be?
- Vibrational wave packet induced oscillations in two-dimensional electronic spectra. I. Experiments
- A critical view on transport and entanglement in models of photosynthesis