Controllable nanoreactor confined to atomic force microscopy tips and its application in low copy DNA ligation

Less molecules reaction, especially at the single molecule level, plays an important role in biochemical or chemical research. It is also significant to achieve low copy or single molecule DNA ligation during the whole genome project. In this paper, a new type of nanoreactor was constructed around atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips under certain humidity, where DNA molecules can be limited to a special space through water meniscus, so the probability of molecules collision was increased and the efficiency of DNA ligation was greatly enhanced. Combined with the nanomanipulation based on AFM, controllable nanoreactor may provide a new tool to single molecule reaction. Low copy DNA ligation was successfully achieved by this method. Results showed the number of DNA molecules involved in the nanoreactor can not be more than sixty. This method will found a base for the ultimate realization of single-molecule DNA ligation.