Letter abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 1, 47 - 52 (2006)
Published online: 4 October 2006 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2006.51
Subject Categories: Nanobiotechnology | Nanoparticles
A nanoplasmonic molecular ruler for measuring nuclease activity and DNA footprinting
Gang L. Liu1, Yadong Yin2,3,6, Siri Kunchakarra2, Bipasha Mukherjee2, Daniele Gerion2,4, Stephen D. Jett5, David G. Bear5, Joe W. Gray2, A. Paul Alivisatos2,3, Luke P. Lee1 & Fanqing Frank Chen2
Abstract
Interactions between nucleic acids and proteins are essential to genetic information processing. The detection of size changes in nucleic acids is the key to mapping such interactions, and usually requires substrates with fluorescent, electrochemical or radioactive labels1, 2, 3. Recently, methods have been developed to tether DNA to highly water-soluble Au nanoparticles4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and nanoparticle pairs linked by DNA have been used to measure nanoscale distances9. Here we demonstrate a molecular ruler in which double-stranded DNA is attached to a Au nanoparticle. The change in plasmon resonance wavelength of individual Au–DNA conjugates depends on the length of the DNA and can be measured with subnanometre axial resolution. An average wavelength shift of approximately 1.24 nm is observed per DNA base pair. This system allows for a label-free, quantitative, real-time measurement of nuclease activity and also serves as a new DNA footprinting platform, which can accurately detect and map the specific binding of a protein to DNA.
- Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, Department of Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551, USA
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and the Cancer Research and Treatment Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
- Present address: Department of Chemistry, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA
Correspondence to: Luke P. Lee1 e-mail: lplee@berkeley.edu
Correspondence to: Fanqing Frank Chen2 e-mail: f_chen@lbl.gov
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