1.D.132. The Synthetic DNA/alpha-Hemolysin Pore (DNA-HL) Family
Henning-Knechtel et al. 2017 have developed a novel approach for creating membrane-spanning protein-based pores. The construction principle is based on using well-defined, circular DNA nanostructures to arrange a precise number of pore-forming protein toxin monomers. Protein pores are constructed with specifically set diameters with artificial alpha-hemolysin (αHL) pores. The DNA/αHL hybrid nanopores are composed of twelve, twenty or twenty-six monomers and show stable insertion into lipid bilayers. Electrical recordings and steady pore size-dependent current levels can be obtained. This approach successfully advances the applicability of nanopores, in particular towards label-free studies of single molecules in large nanoscaled biological structures (Henning-Knechtel et al. 2017). Macromolecular crowding facilitates ssDNA capture within α-hemolysin nanopores (Punia and Chaudhury 2024).