Contribution of the Collective Excitations to the Coupled Proton and Energy Transport along Mitochondrial Cristae Membrane in Oxidative Phosphorylation System.

The results of many experimental and theoretical works indicate that after transport of protons across the mitochondrial inner membrane (MIM) in the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system, they are retained on the membrane-water interface in nonequilibrium state with free energy excess due to low proton surface-to-bulk release. This well-established phenomenon suggests that proton trapping on the membrane interface ensures vectorial lateral transport of protons from proton pumps to ATP synthases (proton acceptors). Despite the key role of the proton transport in bioenergetics, the molecular mechanism of proton transfer in the OXPHOS system is not yet completely established.

Collective excitations in α-helical protein structures interacting with the water environment.

Low-frequency vibrational excitations of protein macromolecules in the terahertz frequency region are suggested to contribute to many biological processes such as enzymatic catalysis, intra-protein energy/charge transport, recognition, and allostery. To explain high effectiveness of these processes, two possible mechanisms of the long-lived excitation were proposed by H. Fröhlich and A.

Cooperative dynamics of quasi-1D lipid structures and lateral transport in biological membranes.

A model for the dynamics of quasi-1D lipid structures in biological membranes is proposed. The model takes into account interactions between the lipid heads and hydro-carbon chains, the description of their relaxation dynamics being based on the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau approach. It is shown that in lateral linear structures of lipids, a soliton-like excitation can propagate with constant velocity.