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arXiv · 1704.08129

Dissipative Vibrational Model for Chiral Recognition in Olfaction

Arash Tirandaz·Farhad Taher Ghahramani·Afshin Shafiee
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Abstract

We examine the olfactory discrimination of left- and right-handed enantiomers of chiral odorants based on the odorant-mediated electron transport from a donor to an acceptor of the olfactory receptors embodied in a biological environment. The chiral odorant is effectively described by an asymmetric double-well potential whose minima are associated to the left- and right-handed enantiomers. The introduced asymmetry is considered as an overall measure of chiral interactions. The biological environment is conveniently modeled as a bath of harmonic oscillators. The resulting Spin-Boson model is adapted by a polaron transformation to derive the corresponding Born-Markov master equation with which we obtain the elastic and inelastic electron tunneling rates. We show that the inelastic tunneling through left- and right-handed enantiomers occurs with different rates. The discrimination mechanism depends on the ratio of tunneling frequency to localization frequency.

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Arash Tirandaz, Farhad Taher Ghahramani, Afshin Shafiee. 2017-04-25. Dissipative Vibrational Model for Chiral Recognition in Olfaction. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.92.032724

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