Polymer Translocation Through Narrow Pores

Abstract

Polymer translocation is relevant to various biological processes, like passage of mRNA newlinefrom nucleus to cytoplasm through nuclear pores after transcription, horizontal gene newlinetransfer in bacterial conjugation, transport of proteins and viral injection of DNA newlineinto the host cells. Polymer translocation also and#64257;nds application in gene therapy, newlinecontrolled drug delivery, and rapid DNA sequencing. Due to these technological ap- newlineplications, polymer translocation has gained considerable attention in the last two newlinedecades both theoretically and experimentally. Experiments have demonstrated that newlinesingle-stranded DNA and RNA molecules can be electrophoretically driven through newlinebiological and synthetic nanopores. By using S. aureus and#945;-hemolysin to form a sin- newlinegle channel across a lipid bilayer separating two buand#64256;er-and#64257;lled compartments, it was newlinefound that the ionic current through pore depends strongly on the polynucleotide se- newlinequence passing through the pore and could be used for sequencing of DNA and RNA newline