Talk abstracts

Talk on Saturday 12:15-12:30pm submitted by Farzin Haque

Fingerprinting of DNA and RNA using the nano-channels of bacteriophage phi29 DNA packaging nano-motor

Farzin Haque (Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati), Peng Jing, Jia Geng, Chris Stites, and Peixuan Guo (Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati)

Abstract:
Living systems contain a wide variety of nanomachines and highly-ordered structures of macromolecules that could serve as modules, tool boxes, or building blocks in nanotechnology. The ingenious design of the bacteriophage phi29 DNA packaging motor with an elegant and elaborate channel has inspired its application for single molecule detection and sensing. The central component of the phi29 motor is the connector composed of twelve copies of the protein gp10, which form a dodecamer channel. The connector after incorporation into a lipid bilayer can serve as a detector for extremely sensitive, reliable, and precise sensing and fingerprinting of ions and macromolecules at the single molecule level (Nature Nanotechnology, in press). Double stranded and single stranded RNA and DNA can be electrophoretically driven through the channel in a concentration and voltage dependent manner. Information about their structure folding, length and conformational dynamics can then be deduced by their characteristic signatures and dwell times during translocation as well as by their relative percentage in current blockades. This protein nanopore system with explicit engineering capability has potential technological applications such as rapid DNA sequencing, gene therapy and controlled drug delivery.

Keywords: Bacteriophage phi29, Nano-Channel, RNA translocation