Formation and Nanomechanical Properties of Silver-Mediated Guanine DNA Duplexes in Aqueous Solution.

ABSTRACT: Silver cations can mediate base pairing of guanine (G) DNA oligomers, yielding linear parallel G-Ag⁺-G duplexes with enhanced stabilities compared to those of canonical DNA duplexes. To enable their use in programmable DNA nanotechnologies, it is critical to understand solution-state formation and the nanomechanical stiffness of G-Ag⁺-G duplexes. Using temperature-controlled circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, we find that heating mixtures of G oligomers and silver salt above 50 °C fully destabilizes G-quadruplex structures and converts oligomers to G-Ag⁺-G duplexes. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry supports that G-Ag⁺-G duplexes form at stoichiometries of 1 Ag⁺ per base pair, and CD spectroscopy suggests that as the Ag

SUBMITTER: Bethur E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10832345 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature