Nanopore sequencing of polynucleotides assisted by a rotating electric field

The translocation kinetics of a polynucleotide chain through a nanopore is studied using Monte-Carlo simulations for both lattice and off-lattice models, by which we demonstrate a method in sequencing polynucleotides assisted by a rotating electric field. At low frequencies of the rotating field, the translocation time of the chain is inversely proportional to the rotating field frequency. More specifically, in these cases, the translocation time of each nucleotide is nearly quantized, and thus it greatly improves the resolution of blockade-current time series obtained from nanopore sequencing experiments. The polynucleotide sequences can be accurately determined from analyzing several time series of current variation through the nanopore.