Two-dimensional packing of short DNA with nonpairing overhangs in cationic liposome-DNA complexes: from Onsager nematics to columnar nematics with finite-length columns.

ABSTRACT: We report the formation of liquid crystalline (LC) phases of short double-stranded DNA with nonpairing (nonsticky) overhangs, confined between two-dimensional (2D) lipid bilayers of cationic liposome-DNA complexes. In a landmark study (Science2007, 318, 1276), Nakata et al. reported on the discovery of strong end-to-end stacking interactions between short DNAs (sDNAs) with blunt ends, leading to the formation of 3D nematic (N) and columnar LC phases. Employing synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering, we have studied the interplay between shape anisotropy-induced and DNA end-to-end interaction-induced N ordering for 11, 24, and 48 bp sDNA rods with single-stranded oligo-thymine (T) overhangs modulating the end-to-end interactions. For suppressed stacking interactions with 10-T overhangs, t

SUBMITTER: Bouxsein NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3092805 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature