The research, which was carried out by academics from the University of Glasgow andpublished today in 'Nature Communications', describes how double-stranded DNA splits using delocalised sound waves that are the hallmark of quantum effects.
DNA contains the code to life and holds a blueprint for each and every living thing on earth.
Dedicated enzymes responsible for making new proteins read the code by splitting the double strand in order to access the information.
"It is believed that DNA has regions where a specific sequence of bases modifies the stiffness of the double helix favouring the formation of bubbles. This causes a break of the weak bonds between the strands showing the transcription and replication enzymes where to start their task," Mario Gonzalez Jimenez, a researcher said.
Another researcher Gopakumar Ramakrishnan said: "It had been proposed by theoreticians that such DNA bubbles might behave like sound waves, bouncing around in DNA like echoes in a cathedral. However, the current paradigm in biology is that such sound-like dynamics are irrelevant to biological function, as interaction of a biomolecule with the surrounding water will almost certainly destroy any of these effects."
This allowed them to succeed in the detection of sound-like bubbles in DNA. They could show that these bubbles whiz around like bullets in a shooting gallery even in an environment very similar to that which can be found in a living cell.
Thomas Harwood said, a reasercher said: "The sound waves in DNA are not your ordinary sound waves. They have a frequency of a few terahertz or a billion times higher than a human or a dog can hear!".
The new results now imply a much more general role for sound-like delocalized phenomena in biomolecular processes.