Autonomous control of interfacial electron transfer and the activation of DNA machines by an oscillatory pH system.

Qi, Xiu-Juan; Lu, Chun-Hua; Liu, Xiaoqing; Shimron, Simcha; Yang, Huang-Hao; Willner, Itamar · Nano Lett · 2013

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

An oscillatory pH system is implemented to drive oscillatory pH-switchable DNA machines and to control pH-stimulated electron transfer at electrode surfaces. The oscillatory pH system drives the autonomous opening and closure of DNA tweezers and activates a DNA pendulum by the pH-stimulated formation and dissociation of i-motif structures. Also, a sequence-programmed nucleic acid monolayer-functionalized electrode undergoes autonomous oscillatory pH transitions between random coil and i-motif configurations, leading to the control of electron transfer at electrode surfaces.

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