Properties of proton transfer in hydrogen-bonded systems and its experimental evidences and applications in biology

We review the progresses of investigation of soliton theory of proton transfer along the hydrogen-bonded systems, such as protein molecules and ice, based on its features of molecular structure, and study further the properties of motion of proton–soliton and influences of anharmonic vibration and structure disorder of the systems, environmental temperature and externally applied fields on the motion of the proton–soliton. In these studies we first determine the mechanism of generation and representation of the nonlinear interactions, which results in the form of proton–soliton, give the Hamiltonian of the system, and gain the proton–soliton solutions of dynamic equations of the proton using the analytic and numerical simulation methods, respectively. At the same time, we find out the mobility and electric conductivity of the proton–soliton along the systems arising from the nonlinear interactions under action of an electric field, as well as their temperature-dependences in ice. These results in the investigations are consistent with experimental data. Thus the true occurrence of the proton–soliton excitation and the correctness of the theory are verified by the experiments. Therefore the theory of proton–soliton transfer in the systems built here is correct. Finally we utilize the nonlinear theory of proton–soliton transfer to investigate the mechanism and properties of transcript and duplication of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in life systems, in which the theory of transcript and duplication are firstly established on the basis of the properties of molecular structure of DNA. The results studied show that the phenomena of transcript and duplication of DNA are explained perfectly using the theory of proton–soliton motion in the hydrogen-bonded systems. Thus we not only obtain the properties of proton–soliton but also confirm that the proton–soliton theory can be applied to elucidate the mechanism of transcript and duplication in DNA. Thus the proton–soliton theory in hydrogen-bonded systems has a wide application in physics and biology.