Chapter 7
Nucleic Acids in Chemical Sensors
Nucleic acids are essential compounds in all living organisms. They provide the means of storing and transferring genetic information. The determination of nucleic acid composition and content in biological samples is a key issue in biosciences and medicine. It is therefore not surprising that nucleic acid sensors are one of the main areas of the biosensor science and technology [1–4]. In such a sensor, nucleic acids can act as both receptors and analytes. Moreover, nucleic acids can also interact in a specific way with a number of small molecules and proteins. This property expands the field of application of nucleic acids as receptors in chemical sensors for such compounds. Applications of nucleic acid sensors encompass a very broad area including not only biomedical sciences but also environment monitoring, food industry and forensic science.
This chapter includes an overview of the main properties of nucleic acids as far as the chemical structure and reactivity are concerned. The applications of nucleic acids as recognition components in biosensors, as well as the transduction strategies in nucleic acid sensors are closely associated with the properties of these compounds. Transduction strategies and applications of nucleic acid sensors are considered later in the chapter.
7.1 Nucleic Acid Structure and Properties
Nucleic acids are biopolymers belonging to the polynucleotide class. The most common representative types of polynucleotide ...
