Comment on "Characterization of the tunneling conductance across DNA bases"

TL;DR

This paper critiques a recent study on DNA nucleotide conductance calculations, clarifying misunderstandings of prior work and highlighting methodological flaws that lead to incorrect conclusions.

Contribution

It clarifies the misinterpretations of previous research and points out methodological issues in the recent study on DNA conductance.

Findings

Previous literature was misread by Zikic et al.

Methodological flaws in Zikic et al.'s approach.

Incorrect conclusions drawn from flawed calculations.

Abstract

In a recent article, Zikic {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 74}, 011919 (2006)] present first-principles calculations of the DNA nucleotides electrical conductance. They report qualitative and quantitative differences with previous work, in particular with that of Zwolak and Di Ventra [Nano Lett. {\bf 5}, 421 (2005)] and Lagerqvist {\it et al.} [Nano Lett. {\bf 6}, 779 (2006)]. In this comment we address the alleged discrepancies and show that Zikic {\it et al.} have seriously misread and misunderstood the existing literature. In addition, we point out the deficiencies of their approach in calculating the conductance of nucleotides and the consequent erroneous conclusions they report.