title: Electronic single-molecule identification of carbohydrate isomers by recognition tunnelling.
abstract: Carbohydrates are one of the four main building blocks of life, and are categorized as monosaccharides (sugars), oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Each sugar can exist in two alternative anomers (in which a hydroxy group at C-1 takes different orientations) and each pair of sugars can form different epimers (isomers around the stereocentres connecting the sugars). This leads to a vast combinatorial complexity, intractable to mass spectrometry and requiring large amounts of sample for NMR characterization. Combining measurements of collision cross section with mass spectrometry (IM-MS) helps, but many isomers are still difficult to separate. Here, we show that recognition tunnelling (RT) can classify many anomers and epimers via the current fluctuations they produce when captured in a tunnel junction functionalized with recognition molecules. Most importantly, RT is a nanoscale technique utilizing sub-picomole quantities of analyte. If integrated into a nanopore, RT would provide a unique approach to sequencing linear polysaccharides.
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|Department of Physics, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: JongOne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Im
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Sovan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9909-5980
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Suman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Sudipta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ashcroft
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Chad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borges
authors.affiliation: School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|School of Molecular Sciences, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.|Department of Physics, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lindsay
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizonan State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Peiming
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry*; D005947:Glucose / Q000737:chemistry; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D007536:Isomerism; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D016252:Microscopy, Scanning Tunneling; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009005:Monosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D060388:Support Vector Machine
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D009005:Monosaccharides; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D011134:Polysaccharides; D005947:Glucose