Luan Binquan, Wang Chao, Royyuru Ajay, Stolovitzky Gustavo
IBM T J Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Road, Yorktown Heights, 10598, USA.
Nanotechnology. 2014 Jul 4;25(26):265101. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/25/26/265101. Epub 2014 Jun 12.
A nanofluidic channel, with a pair of perpendicularly aligned nanoelectrodes, is proposed to electrically control the motion of DNA molecules. Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we studied electrostatic responses of a charged DNA molecule in the nanochannel and investigated optimized operating conditions for controlling the DNA molecule. When the transversal electric field was periodically turned on and off, the DNA molecule was correspondingly immobilized on and released from the channel surface. Under simultaneously applied longitudinal biasing and transversal trapping electric fields, the DNA molecule moved forward in a 'ratchet'-like fashion. It is expected that achieving the controlled motion of DNA in the channel can advance studies and applications of a nanochannel-based sensor for analyzing DNA (e.g., DNA sequencing).
提出了一种带有一对垂直排列的纳米电极的纳米流体通道，用于电控制DNA分子的运动。通过全原子分子动力学模拟，我们研究了纳米通道中带电DNA分子的静电响应，并研究了控制DNA分子的优化操作条件。当横向电场周期性地开启和关闭时，DNA分子相应地固定在通道表面并从通道表面释放。在同时施加纵向偏置电场和横向捕获电场的情况下，DNA分子以“棘轮”状方式向前移动。预计实现通道中DNA的受控运动可以推动基于纳米通道的DNA分析传感器（如DNA测序）的研究和应用。
