title: Deuterium and its role in the machinery of evolution.
abstract: An argument is presented that the spontaneous mutation rate, the core of evolution theory, may be dictated by the deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) abundance ratio. This argument is supported by quantum mechanical calculations of the zero-point energy reduction for DNA base pairs upon deuterium substitution for hydrogen and recent experiments that show that the rate of catalytic dsDNA unwinding is dependent on the stability of the dsDNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA. lee_pedersen@unc.edu
authors.forename: Lee G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bartolotti
authors.forename: Leping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003903:Deuterium / Q000032:analysis*; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000032:analysis; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D011789:Quantum Theory
chemical_list: D006859:Hydrogen; D003903:Deuterium