• 文献标题:   Conformational transitions and stop-and-go nanopore transport of single-stranded DNA on charged graphene
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   SHANKLA M, AKSIMENTIEV A
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
  • ISSN:   2041-1723
  • 通讯作者地址:   Univ Illinois
  • 被引频次:   50
  • DOI:   10.1038/ncomms6171
  • 出版年:   2014

▎ 摘  要

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.