title: Single molecule nanometronome.
abstract: We constructed a DNA-based nanomechanical device called the nanometronome. Our device is made by introducing complementary single-stranded overhangs at the two arms of the DNA four-way junction. The ticking rates of this stochastic metronome depend on ion concentrations and can be changed by a set of DNA-based switches to deactivate/reactivate the sticky end. Since the device displays clearly distinguishable responses even with a single base pair difference, it may lead to a single molecule sensor of minute sequence differences of a target DNA.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Chittanon
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buranachai
authors.forename: Sean A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: McKinney
authors.forename: Taekjip
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ha
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D013269:Stochastic Processes
chemical_list: D004247:DNA