IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v403y2000i6770d10.1038_35001029.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Direct measurement of electrical transport through DNA molecules

Author

Listed:
  • Danny Porath

    (Delft University of Technology)

  • Alexey Bezryadin

    (Delft University of Technology
    Harvard University)

  • Simon de Vries

    (Delft University of Technology)

  • Cees Dekker

    (Delft University of Technology)

Abstract

Attempts to infer DNA electron transfer from fluorescence quenching measurements1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 on DNA strands doped with donor and acceptor molecules have spurred intense debate10,11 over the question of whether or not this important biomolecule is able to conduct electrical charges. More recently, first electrical transport measurements on micrometre-long DNA ‘ropes’12, and also on large numbers of DNA molecules in films13, have indicated that DNA behaves as a good linear conductor. Here we present measurements of electrical transport through individual 10.4-nm-long, double-stranded poly(G)-poly(C) DNA molecules connected to two metal nanoelectrodes, that indicate, by contrast, large-bandgap semiconducting behaviour. We obtain nonlinear current–voltage curves that exhibit a voltage gap at low applied bias. This is observed in air as well as in vacuum down to cryogenic temperatures. The voltage dependence of the differential conductance exhibits a peak structure, which is suggestive of the charge carrier transport being mediated by the molecular energy bands of DNA.

Suggested Citation

  • Danny Porath & Alexey Bezryadin & Simon de Vries & Cees Dekker, 2000. "Direct measurement of electrical transport through DNA molecules," Nature, Nature, vol. 403(6770), pages 635-638, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6770:d:10.1038_35001029
    DOI: 10.1038/35001029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35001029
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35001029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adnan Y Rojeab, 2017. "Magnetic Properties Govern the Processes of DNA Replication and the Shortening of the Telomere," Current Trends in Biomedical Engineering & Biosciences, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 8(4), pages 100-105, August.
    2. Jack Hu & Fareeha Safir & Kai Chang & Sahil Dagli & Halleh B. Balch & John M. Abendroth & Jefferson Dixon & Parivash Moradifar & Varun Dolia & Malaya K. Sahoo & Benjamin A. Pinsky & Stefanie S. Jeffre, 2023. "Rapid genetic screening with high quality factor metasurfaces," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6770:d:10.1038_35001029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.