A Novel Biological Nanopore for Active DNA Transport and Detection

Abstract

As reported, scientists have found many kinds of biological pores to study the stochastic sensing. Nanopore sensing has been developed as a platform technology and those biological porins have been reengineered with enormous probability for single-molecule DNA/RNA sequencing, such as α-Hemolysin channel and mycobacterial porin. Here we report a novel porin having a narrow diameter of 1.3-nm with a transmembrane region. This porin can be reconstructed into lipid bilayer and transport ions, small molecules, DNA and RNA. Interestingly, we find that both single-stranded and double-stranded nucleic acids can be translocated. The average dwell time for 48-nt ssDNA was 2-4 mS, and the blockade was 80%±5%. We also find its DNA helicase activity fueled by ATP hydrolysis. This nanopore has the potential application in active DNA transport and sequencing.