Charge transport in cancer-related genes and early carcinogenesis

The electronic transmission properties of DNA molecules are believed to play a significant role in many physical phenomena taking place in living organisms [1]. Here we study the charge transport (CT) properties of cancer-related genes, including some of the most important tumor suppressors. We find that the changes in averaged CT around the sites of pathogenic and cancerous mutations are statistically smaller than those on sites where pathogenic mutations have not been observed. The results suggested that CT might be an indicator to discriminate between pathogenic and non-pathogenic mutations at an early stage. Mutations which cause little change in CT may be more likely to occur, or more likely to be missed by damage-repair enzymes which probe CT, and are therefore more likely to persist and cause disease.