Hu Qiu, Anuj Girdhar, Klaus Schulten, and Jean-Pierre Leburton.
Electrically tunable quenching of DNA fluctuations in biased
solid-state nanopores.
ACS Nano, 10:4482-4488, 2016.
(PMC: PMC4918906)
QIU2016
Nanopores offer sensors for a broad range of nanoscale materials, in particular
ones of
biological origin like single- and double-stranded DNA or DNA-protein
complexes. In order
to increase single-molecule sensitivity, it is desirable to control biomolecule
motion inside
nanopores. In the present study, we investigate how in case of a double-
stranded DNA the
single-molecule sensitivity can be improved through bias voltages. For this
purpose we
carry out molecular dynamics simulations of the DNA inside nanopores in an
electrically
biased metallic membrane, by using molecular dynamics simulations.
Stabilization of DNA,
namely a reduction in thermal fluctuations, is observed under positive bias
voltages, while
negative voltages bring about only negligible stabilization. For positive biases
the
stabilization arises from electrostatic attraction between the negatively charged
DNA
backbone and the positively charged pore surface. Simulations on a teardrop-
shape pore
show a transverse shift of DNA position toward the sharp end of the pore under
positive
bias voltages, suggesting the possibility to control DNA alignment inside
nanopores
through geometry shaping. The present findings open a feasible and efficient
route to
reduce thermal noise, and in turn, enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in single-
molecule
nanopore sensing.
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