利用纳米孔研究DNA

脱氧核糖核酸 (DNA)和蛋白质是构成生命体最为重要的两类生物大分子 .随着科学技术的快速发展 ,越来越多的纳米技术被用来研究这些生物大分子 .文章详细介绍了近来利用纳米孔技术研究DNA的一些进展 .结合作者近期利用聚焦离子束 (FIB)制作纳米孔的工作 ,提出了利用纳米孔解离核小体的设想 .如果能够利用纳米孔将双螺旋DNA从组蛋白八聚体上剥离下来 ,并探测这一过程 ,将揭示核小体中包含的许多生物化学、物理信息 .文章对此进行了较为详细的分析 :处于电场中的核小体在电场的作用下 ,DNA分子穿越纳米孔 ,同时由于纳米孔的阻挡力 ,使组蛋白不能穿越 ,从而诱使DNA从组蛋白八聚体上分离下来 .通过准确检测DNA分子穿孔过程中引起的电流阻塞效应 ,可将DNA与组蛋白的相互作用的一些性质反映出来

Study DNA with a nanopore

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and protein are two kinds of very important bio\|macromolecules. With the rapid development of science and technology, more and more aspects of nano\|technology have been used for studying these molecules. We review recent progress in the research of DNA molecules with nanopores. Related to our recent work on the fabrication of nanopores with focused ion beam technology, we introduce the basic concept and technology which may be used to study the disassembling dynamics of nucleosomes: the double\|strand DNA of the nucleosome passes through the nanopore in an electric field, whereas the histone octamer is blocked by the nanopore. We expect to detect this peeling process by measuring the current blockade from which we may obtain the interaction information between DNA and histones.