Charge Transfer in DNA

Abstract

AbstractCharge transfer in DNA attracts substantial attentions of researchers in wide fields, especially in the fields of bioscience, nanotechnology, physical chemistry, and so on. During the charge transfer in DNA, hole and excess electron play important roles as charged species in the conduction mechanism. It has been revealed that two kinds of electron transfer mechanisms have to be considered to explain the process of hole transfer in DNA, that is, tunneling and hopping mechanisms. The tunneling mechanism, which is governed by the Marcus theory, is important when the distance for the charge transfer is short (normally less than three nucleobase pairs). On the other hand, by the hopping mechanism, which can be described by the one‐dimensional random walk model, long‐range hole migration in DNA becomes possible. In the case of excess electron transfer, on the other hand, contribution of both tunneling and hopping mechanisms to conduction mechanism has been indicated. In this article, we summarize the mechanistic studies on charge transfer in DNA as well as its application.