Electrokinetic-flow-induced viscous drag on a tethered DNA inside a nanopore

TL;DR

This paper calculates the viscous drag force on tethered DNA inside a nanopore, highlighting its significance in interpreting experimental translocation times and force measurements in nanopore experiments.

Contribution

It provides an explicit calculation of viscous force for cylindrical nanopores, showing its comparable effect to charge reduction by Manning condensation.

Findings

Viscous drag significantly reduces tether force.

Viscous effects are comparable to Manning charge reduction.

Results aid in interpreting nanopore translocation experiments.

Abstract

Recent work has shown that the resistive force arising from viscous effects within the pore region could explain [Ghosal, S. Phys. Rev. E. vol. 71, 051904 (2006) and Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 98, 238104 (2007)] observed translocation times in certain experiments involving voltage driven translocations of DNA through nanopores. The electrokinetic flow inside the pore and the accompanying viscous effects also play a crucial role in the interpretation of experiments where the DNA is immobilized inside a nanopore[U. Keyser, et al., Nature Physics vol. 2, 473 (2006)]. In this paper the viscous force is explicitly calculated for a nanopore of cylindrical geometry. It is found that the reduction of the tether force due to viscous drag and due to charge reduction by Manning condensation are of similar size. The result is of importance in the interpretation of experimental data on tethered DNA.