Inhomogeneous DNA: conducting exons and insulating introns

TL;DR

This study reveals that exons and introns in DNA have distinct electrical conducting properties, with exons supporting extended electronic states due to specific nucleotide correlations, unlike introns.

Contribution

It demonstrates the differing electron localization properties of exons and introns based on long-range nucleotide correlations in DNA sequences.

Findings

Exons have narrow bands of extended states.

Introns exhibit well-localized electronic states.

Nucleotide correlations influence DNA's electrical properties.

Abstract

Parts of DNA sequences known as exons and introns play very different role in coding and storage of genetic information. Here we show that their conducting properties are also very different. Taking into account long-range correlations among four basic nucleotides that form double-stranded DNA sequence, we calculate electron localization length for exon and intron regions. Analyzing different DNA molecules, we obtain that the exons have narrow bands of extended states, unlike the introns where all the states are well localized. The band of extended states is due to a specific form of the binary correlation function of the sequence of basic DNA nucleotides.