DNA linearization through confinement in nanofluidic channels

Stretching DNA has emerged as a vital process for studying the physical and biological properties of these molecules. Over the past decade, there has been increasing research interest in utilizing nanoscale fluidic channels to confine and stretch single DNA molecules. Nanofabricated systems for linearizing DNA have revealed new and important insights into the conformation changes of DNA molecules. They also have emerged as innovative techniques for efficiently separating DNA molecules based on size and for physically mapping genetic information along the genome. This review describes physical theories of DNA linearization, current DNA stretching techniques based on nanofabricated channels, and breakthroughs resulting from the use of nanofluidic channels for DNA linearization.