Description
Carbohydrates are one of the four main building blocks of life, and are categorized as monosaccharides (sugars), oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Each sugar can exist in two alternative anomers (in which a hydroxy group at C-1 takes different orientations) and each pair of sugars can form different epimers (isomers around the stereocentres connecting the sugars). This leads to a vast combinatorial complexity, intractable to mass spectrometry and requiring large amounts of sample for NMR characterization. Combining measurements of collision cross section with mass spectrometry (IM–MS) helps, but many isomers are still difficult to separate. Here, we show that recognition tunnelling (RT) can classify many anomers and epimers via the current fluctuations they produce when captured in a tunnel junction functionalized with recognition molecules. Most importantly, RT is a nanoscale technique utilizing sub-picomole quantities of analyte. If integrated into a nanopore, RT would provide a unique approach to sequencing linear polysaccharides.
Details
Title
- Electronic single-molecule identification of carbohydrate isomers by recognition tunnelling
Contributors
- Im, Jong One (Author)
- Biswas, Sovan (Author)
- Liu, Hao (Author)
- Zhao, Yanan (Author)
- Sen, Suman (Author)
- Biswas, Sudipta (Author)
- Ashcroft, Brian (Author)
- Borges, Chad (Author)
- Wang, Xu (Author)
- Lindsay, Stuart (Author)
- Zhang, Peiming (Author)
- Biodesign Institute (Contributor)
- Single Molecule Biophysics (Contributor)
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
- Department of Physics (Contributor)
- School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2016-12-21
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Identifier
- Digital object identifier: 10.1038/ncomms13868
- Identifier TypeInternational standard serial numberIdentifier Value2041-1723
Note
- The final version of this article, as published in Nature Communications, can be viewed online at: http://aca.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4919398
Citation and reuse
Cite this item
This is a suggested citation. Consult the appropriate style guide for specific citation guidelines.
Im, J., Biswas, S., Liu, H., Zhao, Y., Sen, S., Biswas, S., . . . Zhang, P. (2016). Electronic single-molecule identification of carbohydrate isomers by recognition tunnelling. Nature Communications, 7, 13868. doi:10.1038/ncomms13868