Sequence dependence of charge transport properties of DNA

J Phys Chem B. 2006 May 11;110(18):8910-3. doi: 10.1021/jp060870o.

Abstract

The electrical conduction through three short oligomers (26 base pairs, 8 nm long) with differing numbers of GC base pairs was measured. One strand is poly(A)-poly(T), which is entirely devoid of GC base pairs. Of the two additional strands, one contains 8 and the other 14 GC base pairs. The oligomers were adsorbed on a gold substrate on one side and to a gold nanoparticle on the other side. Conducting atomic force microscope was used for obtaining the current versus voltage curves. We found that in all cases the DNA behaves as a wide band-gap semiconductor, with width depending on the number of GC base pairs. As this number increases, the band-gap narrows. For applied voltages exceeding the band-gap, the current density rises dramatically. The rise becomes sharper with increasing number of GC base pairs, reaching more than 1 nA/nm2 for the oligomer containing 14 GC pairs.

Publication types

  • Letter
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Composition
  • Base Sequence
  • Cytosine / chemistry*
  • DNA / chemistry*
  • DNA, Single-Stranded / chemistry
  • Electric Conductivity
  • Gold / chemistry
  • Guanine / chemistry*
  • Metal Nanoparticles / chemistry
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force
  • Molecular Sequence Data

Substances

  • DNA, Single-Stranded
  • Guanine
  • Gold
  • Cytosine
  • DNA