Photoelectric behavior of supercoiled DNA and its applications in molecular biology

Abstract In this paper, the photoelectric behavior of supercoiled DNA was studied by using a transparent electrode of indium-tin oxide-coated borosilicate (ITO) technology. The supercoiled DNA responsed a negative photoelectric current pulse to the light of 320–410 nm, even in pure water, which was an experimental proof for electron transfer along DNA double helix. We found that the photoelectric current behaved a decrease when the supercoiled DNA subjected to the UV light, and that the photoelectric current decreasing was in accordance with the biological cleavage of the supercoiled DNA. We assumed that the photo-cleavage of supercoiled DNA was related to its oxidative damage through the long-range electron transfer. This photoelectric method can be used to capture the photo-cleavage dynamic information of supercoiled DNA in a real time and in a continuous fashion.

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