Fast DNA Translocation through a Solid-State Nanopore

TLDR

The study aims to explain the observed nonlinear DNA translocation scaling by developing a theoretical model that attributes the dominant opposing force to hydrodynamic drag on the polymer outside the pore. Experiments were conducted on double‑stranded DNA fragments (2000–96,000 bp) electrophoretically driven through a 10 nm silicon‑oxide nanopore, and a hydrodynamic‑drag model was applied to describe the process. The translocation time scales with DNA length as a power law (exponent 1.26 ± 0.07), differing from protein‑pore behavior, and the hydrodynamic‑drag model predicts an exponent of 1.18, in excellent agreement with the data.

Abstract

We report translocation experiments on double-strand DNA through a silicon oxide nanopore. Samples containing DNA fragments with seven different lengths between 2000 to 96000 basepairs have been electrophoretically driven through a 10 nm pore. We find a power-law scaling of the translocation time versus length, with an exponent of 1.26 $\pm$ 0.07. This behavior is qualitatively different from the linear behavior observed in similar experiments performed with protein pores. We address the observed nonlinear scaling in a theoretical model that describes experiments where hydrodynamic drag on the section of the polymer outside the pore is the dominant force counteracting the driving. We show that this is the case in our experiments and derive a power-law scaling with an exponent of 1.18, in excellent agreement with our data.