Inhomogeneous DNA: conducting exons and insulating introns

Abstract

Parts of DNA sequences known as exons and introns play very different role in coding and storage of genetic information. Here we show that their conducting properties are also very different. Taking into account long-range correlations among four basic nucleotides that form double-stranded DNA sequence, we calculate electron localization length for exon and intron regions. Analyzing different DNA molecules, we obtain that the exons have narrow bands of extended states, unlike the introns where all the states are well localized. The band of extended states is due to a specific form of the binary correlation function of the sequence of basic DNA nucleotides.

14 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Electronic Transport in DNA
• DNA double helices for single molecule electronics
• Enhancement of localization in one-dimensional random potentials with long-range correlations
• Point Mutations Effects on Charge Transport Properties of the Tumor-Suppressor Gene p53
• Weak disorder expansion for localization lengths of quasi-1D systems
• Absence of extended states in a ladder model of DNA

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Anomalous Localization in Low-Dimensional Systems with Correlated Disorder
• Flat Bands Under Correlated Perturbations
• Generalized Dyson model: nature of zero mode and its implication in dynamics
• Anomalous localisation in the aperiodic Kronig-Penney model
• Quantum effects and magnetism in the spatially distributed DNA molecules
• Multifractal analysis of nonhyperbolic coupled map lattices: Application to genomic sequences
• Magnetic properties of Gd3+ ions in the spatially distributed DNA molecules
• Transmission in waveguides with compositional and structural disorder: experimental effects of disorder cross-correlations
• Effects of critical correlations on quantum percolation in two dimensions