Characterization of individual polynucleotide molecules using a membrane channel.

We show that an electric field can drive single-stranded RNA and DNA molecules through a 2.6-nm diameter ion channel in a lipid bilayer membrane. Because the channel diameter can accommodate only a single strand of RNA or DNA, each polymer traverses the membrane as an extended chain that partially blocks the channel. The passage of each molecule is detected as a transient decrease of ionic current whose duration is proportional to polymer length. Channel blockades can therefore be used to measure polynucleotide length. With further improvements, the method could in principle provide direct, high-speed detection of the sequence of bases in single molecules of DNA or RNA.

• Publication year

  1996

• Venue

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

• Publication date

  1996-11-26

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1073/PNAS.93.24.13770PMID 8943010PMCID PMC19421
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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