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Electrically induced bonding of DNA to gold

Nature Chemistry volume 2, pages 745–749 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of single-molecule techniques has afforded many new methods for the observation and assembly of supramolecular structures and biomolecular networks. We previously reported a method, known as the single-molecule cut-and-paste approach, to pick up and deposit individual DNA strands on a surface. This, however, required pre-functionalization of the surface with DNA strands complementary to those that were to be picked up and then deposited. Here we show that single molecules of double-stranded DNA, bound to the tip of an atomic force microscope, can be deposited on a bare gold electrode using an electrical trigger (surface potential cycling). The interactions between the DNA and the electrode were investigated and we found that double-stranded DNA chemisorbs to the gold electrode exclusively at its end through primary amine groups. We corroborated this finding in experiments in which only a single adenosine nucleotide on a polyethylene glycol spacer was ‘electrosorbed’ to the gold electrode.

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Figure 1: Electrically induced chemical bonding of a dsDNA strand to gold through its terminal end.
Figure 2: Electrochemistry of DNA-gold bonding.
Figure 3: Nucleotide specificity of DNA–gold electrosorption.
Figure 4: Coordination bond rupture of individual nucleotides.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank K. Gottschalk, D. Ho, W. Schuhmann and U. Sivan for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the German Science Foundation (SFB 486) and the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM). A.F. thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for generous support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for NanoScience, Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Amalienstrasse 54, Munich, 80799

    Matthias Erdmann, Ann R. Fornof & Hermann E. Gaub

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich, Butenandtstrasse 5-13, Munich, 81377, Germany

    Ralf David

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Contributions

M.E., A.F. and H.E.G. conceived and designed the experiments and co-wrote the paper. M.E. performed the experiments and analysed the data. R.D. contributed the dsDNA and provided the tip and electrode functionalization. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ann R. Fornof.

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Erdmann, M., David, R., Fornof, A. et al. Electrically induced bonding of DNA to gold. Nature Chem 2, 745–749 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.722

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