Conformational Manipulation of DNA in NanochannelsUsing Hydrodynamics.

Thecontrol over DNA elongation in nanofluidic devices holds great potentialfor large-scale genomic analysis. So far, the manipulation of DNAin nanochannels has been mostly carried out with electrophoresis andseldom with hydrodynamics, although the physics of soft matter innanoscale flows has raised considerable interest over the past decade.In this report the migration of DNA is studied in nanochannels oflateral dimension spanning 100 to 500 nm using both actuation principles.We show that the relaxation kinetics are 3-fold slowed down and theextension increases up to 3-fold using hydrodynamics. We propose amodel to account for the onset in elongation with the flow, whichassumes that DNA response is determined by the shear-driven lift forcesmediated by the proximity of the channels’ walls. Overall,we suggest that hydrodynamic actuation allows for an improved manipulationof DNA in nanochannels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]