Electrochemistry at DNA-modified surfaces: new probes for charge transport through the double helix.
Electrochemistry at DNA-modified surfaces provides an alternative approach to photochemistry or radiation biology for studying charge migration through the double helix. Using short duplexes self-assembled onto gold, electrochemical reduction of redox-active reporter molecules has been observed through DNA films more than 50 A thick, with heterogeneous rate constants as great as approximately 100 s(-1). Though apparently insensitive to base content and sequence, even small distortions in the electronic structure of the pi-stack (caused, for example, by single-base mismatches and other DNA lesions) attenuate the rate of electron transport. Understanding the role of conformational dynamics within the double helix, as well as the cooperative effects of self-assembling individual duplexes into ordered superlattices remain important challenges for theory and experiment.
Department of Chemistry, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA.
N M
NM
Jackson
M G
MG
Hill
D020137:Base Pair Mismatch; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D003630:Daunorubicin / Q000737:chemistry; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004579:Electron Transport; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011809:Quinones / Q000737:chemistry
D011809:Quinones; D004247:DNA; D003630:Daunorubicin