Fifty Years of Nucleic Acid Electrochemistry

Electrochemistry of nucleic acids (NA's) is a booming field offering sensors for DNA hybridization and DNA damage. Since the middle of the 1990's, when the development of the DNA sensors began, the number of papers in this field is steadily increasing. Electroactivity of DNA and RNA was reported for the first time in 1958. Using oscillographic polarography at controlled AC (OR AC chronopotentiometry) and a dropping mercury electrode it was shown within several years that OP signals respond to changes in DNA structure and can be used to study DNA denaturation, renaturation, premelting and DNA damage. During the first three decades a number of important findings were done, including introductions of covalently bound electroactive labels in DNA, DNA-modified electrodes, application of solid electrodes, etc., which are now used in the development of the NA sensors. On the other hand a lot of knowledge obtained in the first three decades has remained largely unknown to the present generation of researchers.