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Conformational transitions and stop-and-go nanopore transport of single-stranded DNA on charged graphene

Author

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  • Manish Shankla

    (Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign)

  • Aleksei Aksimentiev

    (University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign)

Abstract

Control over interactions with biomolecules holds the key to applications of graphene in biotechnology. One such application is nanopore sequencing, where a DNA molecule is electrophoretically driven through a graphene nanopore. Here we investigate how interactions of single-stranded DNA and a graphene membrane can be controlled by electrically biasing the membrane. The results of our molecular dynamics simulations suggest that electric charge on graphene can force a DNA homopolymer to adopt a range of strikingly different conformations. The conformational response is sensitive to even very subtle nucleotide modifications, such as DNA methylation. The speed of DNA motion through a graphene nanopore is strongly affected by the graphene charge: a positive charge accelerates the motion, whereas a negative charge arrests it. As a possible application of the effect, we demonstrate stop-and-go transport of DNA controlled by the charge of graphene. Such on-demand transport of DNA is essential for realizing nanopore sequencing.

Suggested Citation

  • Manish Shankla & Aleksei Aksimentiev, 2014. "Conformational transitions and stop-and-go nanopore transport of single-stranded DNA on charged graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6171
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6171
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