Stretching and unzipping nucleic acid hairpins using a synthetic nanopore
Open Access
- 10 January 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Nucleic Acids Research
- Vol. 36 (5), 1532-1541
- https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkm1017
Abstract
We have explored the electromechanical properties of DNA by using an electric field to force single hairpin molecules to translocate through a synthetic pore in a silicon nitride membrane. We observe a threshold voltage for translocation of the hairpin through the pore that depends sensitively on the diameter and the secondary structure of the DNA. The threshold for a diameter 1.5 1.5 V, which corresponds to the force required to stretch the stem of the hairpin, according to molecular dynamics simulations. On the other hand, for 1.0 <d< 1.5 nm, the threshold voltage collapses to V< 0.5 V because the stem unzips with a lower force than required for stretching. The data indicate that a synthetic nanopore can be used like a molecular gate to discriminate between the secondary structures in DNA.This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
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