Synthesis of Long DNA-Based Nanowires

Here we describe novel procedures for production of DNA-based nanowires. This include synthesis and characterization of the one-to-one double-helical complex of poly(dG)–poly(dC), triple-helical poly(dG)–poly(dG)–poly(dC) and G4-DNA, which is a quadruple-helical form of DNA. All these types of DNA-based molecules were synthesized enzymatically using Klenow exo⁻ fragment of DNA Polymerase I. All the above types of nanowires are characterized by a narrow-size distribution of molecules. The contour length of the molecules can be varied from tens to hundreds of nanometers. These structures possess improved conductive and mechanical properties with respect to a canonical random-sequenced DNA and can possibly be used as wire-like conducting or semiconducting nanostructures in the field of nanoelectronics.