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Updated: Jun 6, 2025

Advanced Confocal Microscopy Techniques to Study Protein-protein Interactions and Kinetics at DNA Lesions
Published on: November 12, 2017
Ultra-weak photon emission from DNA
Mariusz Pietruszka1, Marek Marzec2
1Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Biology, Biotechnology, and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia, Katowice, 40-032, Poland. mariusz.pietruszka@us.edu.pl.
Abstract:
It is conventionally believed that macromolecules found in living cells, including DNA, RNA, and proteins, do not exhibit inherent light emission. However, recent studies have challenged this concept by demonstrating spontaneous light emission from nucleic acids under certain conditions and physiological temperatures. By noninvasive monitoring of barley genomic DNA and advanced statistical physics analyses, temperature-induced dynamic entropy fluctuations and fractal dimension oscillations were identified at a key organizational threshold. The study revealed evidence for non-equilibrium phase transitions, a noticeable photovoltaic current jump at zero bias voltage, and a proportional increase (scaling) of the photoinduced current corresponding to increasing amounts of DNA. In addition, we estimated DNA's energy production rate at criticality and introduced an interferometer using coherent light emissions from the DNA-water interface. These findings suggest that DNA is a major source of ultraweak photon emission in biological systems.
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