Midinfrared Radiation Accelerates DNA Unwinding
Yifang Yuan, Jing Lou, Kaijie Wu, Yun Yu, Chenyu Li, Wenyu Peng, Yiping Han, Jiang Li, Chao Chang
Abstract
Unwinding the double helix of DNA, the premier step of DNA replication and translation, is crucial for the transmission of biological genetic information. Recent studies have demonstrated that mid-infrared (mid-IR) radiation can promote the unwinding of DNA double helixes at the molecular level. However, the limited skin depth prevents mid-IR from fully interacting with DNA molecules due to the thicker water layer and significant temperature rise, leading to uncertainty in the mechanism of action. Here, we demonstrate a direct experimental method in which mid-IR can promote DNA unwinding rather than just thermal effects by significantly reducing the water film to 300 μm. The experimental results indicate that mid-IR promotes DNA double-helix dissociation by 7 times, under the temperature of 40 °C. Even under external cooling conditions at 30 °C, mid-IR can still promote an unwinding process, further verifying the effect of the mid-IR field on DNA duplexes. Besides, the experimental results are consistent with the simulation results based on molecular dynamics. Our research results offer an efficient approach for the exploration of in vivo experiments of mid-IR technology in gene biology, with broad potential applications in the rapid detection of nucleic acids, bioinformatics, and in vivo drug delivery.