[Computer rendering of DNA. Via Caroline Davis2010 on Flickr & CC 2.0]
The Talk:
“DNA-mediated Signaling with Metalloproteins”
In Plain English:
DNA can conduct electricity–like metal wire–and that helps the cell life
The Speaker:
The Sponsor:
MIT Inorganic Chemistry (invited by the grad students)
What It Covered:
When Jacqueline Barton’s lab began publishing papers claiming that DNA can conduct electricity, many of her colleagues didn’t believe them. But in experiment after experiment, they kept finding that they could send small amounts of electricity–much lower than the amount that flows through your charger cord–from an electrode on one end of a DNA strand through to the other.
The exceptions were stretches of DNA with “missense mutations“, hiccups in the genetic code that violated the rule of “G” aligns with “C” and “A” aligns with “T”.
A,T, G, and C are biologists’ shorthand for four small molecular structures– adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine– that repeat over and over again along DNA’s backbone. It just so happens that a G-C pair takes up exactly the same amount of space and adds exactly the same amount of twist as an A-T pair. Anything else–a misplaced guanine, a broken cytosine, or a chemical tag on thymine– throws the DNA’s twist out of whack. And apparently, the missense mutations also blocked electrical currents’ flow through a tiny gap in the center of the DNA. Mismatched base pairs or base pairs that were even slightly damaged blocked the electrons’ path. Continue reading “Why DNA is like a phone cable (Recap of a Talk by Prof. Jacqueline Barton)” »
