Abstract
We present a detailed analysis of the process of voltage driven capture of DNA molecules by nanopores. We show that ionic current generates a nonuniform electric field that acts on both the DNA and on its counterions and that the response of DNA to the electric field is affected by its electroosmotic coupling to the mobile counterions. We calculate the voltage and molecular mass dependence of the radius of capture and of the capture rate in the diffusion limited regime. We argue that electroosmotic flow through the DNA coil is suppressed in the vicinity of the pore and present a tentative estimate of the capture rate in the barrier limited regime.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 165102 |
| Journal | Journal of Chemical Physics |
| Volume | 133 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 28 Oct 2010 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors gratefully acknowledge collaboration with Amit Meller who introduced us to the problem of DNA capture by nanopores and provided invaluable experimental feedback to our theoretical thinking. We are also grateful to Boris Shklovskii, Paul Chaikin, and Eric Siggia for useful constructive criticisms. We acknowledge useful exchange with Meni Wanunu. We thank M. Muthukumar for sharing with us his work prior to its publication. A.Y.G. acknowledges the hospitality of the Aspen Center for Physics, where part of this work was performed. The work of Y.R. was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation and the Israel-France Research Networks Program in Biophysics and Physical Biology, and by the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center program of the National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR-0520513 at Northwestern University.
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge collaboration with Amit Meller who introduced us to the problem of DNA capture by nanopores and provided invaluable experimental feedback to our theoretical thinking. We are also grateful to Boris Shklovskii, Paul Chaikin, and Eric Siggia for useful constructive criticisms. We acknowledge useful exchange with Meni Wanunu. We thank M. Muthukumar for sharing with us his work prior to its publication. A.Y.G. acknowledges the hospitality of the Aspen Center for Physics, where part of this work was performed. The work of Y.R. was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation and the Israel-France Research Networks Program in Biophysics and Physical Biology, and by the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center program of the National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR-0520513 at Northwestern University.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Israel-France Research Networks Program in Biophysics and Physical Biology | |
| National Science Foundation | DMR-0520513 |
| Northwestern University | |
| Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University | |
| Israel Science Foundation |