Abstract

Nanopores have been emerged as a powerful tool for analyzing the structural information and interactional properties of a range of biomolecules. The spatial resolution of nanopore is determined by the diameter and effective thickness of its constriction region, but the presence of vestibule or stem structure in protein-based nanopore could negatively affect the sensitivity of the nanopore when applied for genome sequencing and topological analysis of DNA. Recently, alpha-hederin (Ah) has been reported to form a sub-nanometer scale pore structure in lipid membrane. With the simple structure and extremely small effective thickness, the Ah nanopore was shown to discriminate four different types of nucleotides. However, identification of a certain nucleotide in a strand of DNA, which is essential for genome sequencing, remains challenging. Here, we investigated the resolving capability of Ah nanopore to discriminate few nucleotides in a strand of single-stranded DNA, and the factors determining the sensitivity of Ah nanopore. The Ah nanopore was shown to be able to identify as few as three adenosine nucleotides in a strand of poly cytidine, in which the dwell time of the additional current blockade that represents the adenosine residue was in good agreement with their physical length. We also found that the lateral tension and chain pressure generated around the nanopore were influenced by pore's diameter and played as a dependent variables to determine the geometry of nanopore's constriction as well as the spatial resolution of the Ah nanopore.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.