Curvature-induced base pair "slipping" effects in DNA-nanoparticle hybridization.

ABSTRACT: Experiments are presented that suggest DNA strands chemically immobilized on gold nanoparticle surfaces can engage in two types of hybridization: one that involves complementary strands and normal base pairing interactions and a second one assigned as a "slipping" interaction, which can additionally stabilize the aggregate structures through non-Watson-Crick type base pairing or interactions less complementary than the primary interaction. The curvature of the particles appears to be a major factor that contributes to the formation of these slipping interactions as evidenced by the observation that flat gold triangular nanoprism conjugates of the same sequence do not support them. Finally, these slipping interactions significantly stabilize nanoparticle aggregate structures, leading to lar

SUBMITTER: Hill HD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2698813 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature