A Twisting Electronic Nanoswitch Made of DNA1. Issue 51 (21st October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Yu Chuan; Sen, Dipankar
• Is Part Of: Angewandte Chemie international edition. Volume 53:Issue 51(2014)
• Page Start: 14055
• Page End: 14059
• Publication Date: 2014-10-21
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201407729
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1433-7851

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Single‐stranded DNAs and RNAs that are rich in the nucleobase guanine form four‐stranded G‐quadruplexes, which are held together by hydrogen‐bonded guanine quartets. In aqueous solution, both DNA duplexes and G‐quadruplexes are modest conductors of electrical charge. A tight, topologically constrained DNA construct called twDNA is now reported, in which a core of four guanine‐rich single strands structurally and electronically links together four DNA double helices. The addition and removal of K⁺ or Sr²⁺ cations promote alternative conformers of twDNA, which have strikingly distinct electronic properties. Unlike DNA mechano‐electronic switches that require large conformational changes, twDNA requires only modest twisting/untwisting structural attenuations to achieve electronic switching.</p> </abstract>