Charge transfer in single- and double-strand DNAs: Theoretical analysis based on molecular orbital method

Abstract

Electrochemical DNA chips determine the sequence of DNA bases by detecting the change in charge conductivity through single- or double-strand DNA. Experimentally, double-strand DNAs were found to conduct much greater electric current than single-strand DNAs. To gain insight into the underlying mechanism leading to such a disparity in charge conductivity, the hole/electron conductivities in single- and double-strand DNAs were examined theoretically by molecular dynamics and molecular orbital (MO) calculations. The hole/electron transfer integrals between the neighboring DNA bases were estimated from the frontier MO energy levels. The current-voltage characteristics of single- and double-strand DNAs, derived from the transfer integrals and the site energy of each DNA base, are qualitatively in agreement with experiment. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.