Electrochemical single-molecule conductivity of duplex and quadruplex DNA

Photoinduced and electrochemical charge transport in DNA (oligonucleotides, OGNs) and the notions “hopping”, superexchange, polaron, and vibrationally gated charge transport have been in focus over more than two decades. In recent years mapping of electrochemical charge transport of pure and redox marked single- and double-strand OGNs has reached the single-molecule level based i.a. on electrochemical in situ scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and break-junction (B-J) STM. There are much fewer such reports on “non-canonical” OGN structures such as G-quadruplexes. We discuss first single-molecule electrochemical conductivity of pure and redox marked duplex OGNs, and address next electrochemistry and electrochemical conductivity in the few reported monolayer and single-molecule G-quadruplex studies. Facile electrochemical electron transfer of iron protoporphyrin IX stacked onto three-quartet 12-guanine quadruplex (“DNAzyme”) and in situ high-resolution molecular structures are particularly noted.