DNA Conduction Mechanisms and Engineering

摘要

DNA conductivities reported in the literature vary widely — from metallic tosemiconducting to insulating. Given that DNA is a well understood double-helical stacking of periodically-spaced nucleotide base pairs, it is natural to thinkthat not all the accounts of DNA conductivity can be right. However, when onetakes into account the fact the periodically-spaced bases can differ in their redoxpotentials, the situation looks more reasonable. Each sequence of the four basescorresponding to a biologically-different DNA is also a different series of electricalpotentials for electron transport. Although the spacing between the stacked basepairs is constant, the location and frequency with which any one of the four basesappears in the sequences are not, and are what could give rise to very differentconductivities.