Nanochannel confinement: DNA stretch approaching full contour length
Abstract
Fully stretched DNA molecules are becoming a fundamental component of new systems for comprehensive genome analysis. Among a number of approaches for elongating DNA molecules, nanofluidic molecular confinement has received enormous attentions from physical and biological communities for the last several years. Here we demonstrate a well-optimized condition that a DNA molecule can stretch almost to its full contour length: the average stretch is 19.1 µm ± 1.1 µm for YOYO-1 stained λ DNA (21.8 µm contour length) in 250 nm × 400 nm channel, which is the longest stretch value ever reported in any nanochannels or nanoslits. In addition, based on Odijk's