Comparing Charge Transport in Oligonucleotides: RNA:DNA Hybrids and DNA Duplexes

J Phys Chem Lett. 2016 May 19;7(10):1888-94. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b00749. Epub 2016 May 9.

Abstract

Understanding the electronic properties of oligonucleotide systems is important for applications in nanotechnology, biology, and sensing systems. Here the charge-transport properties of guanine-rich RNA:DNA hybrids are compared to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) duplexes with identical sequences. The conductance of the RNA:DNA hybrids is ∼10 times higher than the equivalent dsDNA, and conformational differences are determined to be the primary reason for this difference. The conductance of the RNA:DNA hybrids is also found to decrease more rapidly than dsDNA when the length is increased. Ab initio electronic structure and Green's function-based density of states calculations demonstrate that these differences arise because the energy levels are more spatially distributed in the RNA:DNA hybrid but that the number of accessible hopping sites is smaller. These combination results indicate that a simple hopping model that treats each individual guanine as a hopping site is insufficient to explain both a higher conductance and β value for RNA:DNA hybrids, and larger delocalization lengths must be considered.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • DNA / chemistry*
  • Electron Transport
  • Oligonucleotides / chemistry*
  • Quantum Theory
  • RNA / chemistry*

Substances

  • Oligonucleotides
  • RNA
  • DNA