Molecular Conductance of Nicked Nucleic Acid Duplexes

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C 2018-04, Vol.122 (13), p.7533-7540
• Main Authors: Beall, Edward, Sargun, Artur, Ulku, Selma, Bae, Yookyung, Wierzbinski, Emil, Clever, Caleb, Waldeck, David H, Achim, Catalina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b00650

This work investigates how the conductance of a nucleic acid duplex with a “nick” in its backbone compares with that of a duplex with a fully covalent backbone. Statistical analyses of the single-molecule conductance properties reveal that molecular junctions with a nicked duplex have an average conductance close to that found for non-nicked structures but exhibit greater variability in the molecular conductance. This effect is shown for both DNA homoduplexes and DNA/PNA heteroduplexes, with the heteroduplexes showing a greater average molecular conductance and a smaller degree of variability. The average molecular conductance of the heteroduplexes is also shown to be affected by their PNA content; the conductance of duplexes increases as the ratio of PNA to DNA increases. These observations suggest that the charge-transfer properties of nucleic acid-based assemblies can support complex functions.