2003/07/31 by F. Palmero, J. F. R. Archilla, Juan F. R. Archilla +2 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques #DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #cond-mat.soft #nlin.PS #q-bio.BM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/6/1/013
published as New. Jou. Phys. 6:13.1-13.16, 2004. · 21 pages, 10 figures
arxiv created 2003/11/25 · openalex publication_date 2004/02/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Some recent results for a three-dimensional, semi-classical, tight-binding model for DNA show that there are two types of polarons, namely radial and twist polarons, which can transport charge along the DNA molecule. However, the existence of two types of base pairs in real DNA makes it crucial to find out if charge transport also exists in DNA chains with different base pairs. In this paper, we address this problem in its simple case, a homogeneous chain except for a single different base pair, which we call a base-pair inhomogeneity, and its effect on charge transport. Radial polarons experience either reflection or trapping. However, twist polarons are good candidates for charge transport along real DNA. This transport is also very robust with respect to weak parametric and diagonal disorder.