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Comment by sklogic | Hacker News Reader

Protein folding is a quantum thing indeed. And folding matters no less than the amino acids sequence.

Folding has nothing to do with DNA.

DNA encodes the amino acid sequence. Quantum mechanics defines the folding. These two things combined determine the colour of your eyes, etc., etc. Encoding per se is meaningless without the folding.

Also, the way how RNA polymerase work (i.e., transcription) is of quite a quantum nature too.

DNA needs to be _unfolded_ during transcription. Anyway, the information stored in DNA in a very much non-quantum nature.

> Also, the way how RNA polymerase work (i.e., transcription) is of quite a quantum nature too.

Proof?

Yes, the DNA encoded information is classic (please do not consider my comments as any kind of an endorsment of the OP article). But, as I said, this is only a half of the information you need to get any sensible predictions of the results. The rest is defined by folding, and it is very much quantum (heuristics aside).

> Proof?

I never heard of any polymerase simulation which did not involve computational quantum chemistry methods. Cannot even think of any possible classic approximation (again, heuristics aside - they're just masking the quantum nature of the underlying physics).

EDIT: as for transcription, do not forget about the operons. Theirs molecular mechanics is also very quantum.

DNA and RNA both also fold.

This is an approximation:

http://mfold.rna.albany.edu/?q=mfold/dna-folding-form

The underlying quantum chemistry (which doesn't need to specifically invoke coherence or tunneling) is required to get truly accurate results. Classical approximations aren't sufficient to measure really subtle energy differences between folded forms.

I am not talking about RNA. I am talking strictly about. The way DNA stores information has nothing to do with the way it is folded. Proteins and some types of RNA require proper folding to function, DNA does not.

This is incorrect: DNA in the folded form of chromatin stores information. In particular, chromatin state is epigenetic and is used to deactivate many genes during the development process.

Further, even a duplex is a "fold" (coiled coils are a structural motif).

You're fixating on the A T G C base form of encoding; DNA contains a lot more information than just that, encoded in its quatenary structure.

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