Tilted brownian ratchet for DNA analysis.
In this paper, we report a factor of 3 improvement in the resolution and a factor of 10 improvement in the speed of fractionation of approximately 100-kb DNA molecules in Brownian ratchet arrays. In our device, the electrophoretic flow is tilted at a small angle relative to the array axis. Tilting accelerates the fractionation speed because a higher fraction of the diffusing molecules is "ratcheted" at each step in the array. Molecules of lengths 48.5 and 164 kb can be separated in approximately 70 min with a resolution of approximately 3.8, using a 12-mm-long array. The Brownian ratchet arrays are not limited to DNA separation, but can, in principle, be used for any particle in this size range.
Huang
Lotien Richard
LR
Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials (POEM), Departments of Electrical Engineering, Molecular Biology, and Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Cox
Edward C
EC
Austin
Robert H
RH
Sturm
James C
JC
D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D004058:Diffusion; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005453:Fluorescence; D010316:Particle Size
D004247:DNA