Structural rigidity of paranemic crossover and juxtapose DNA nanostructures.

ABSTRACT: Crossover motifs are integral components for designing DNA-based nanostructures and nanomechanical devices due to their enhanced rigidity compared to the normal B-DNA. Although the structural rigidity of the double helix B-DNA has been investigated extensively using both experimental and theoretical tools, to date there is no quantitative information about structural rigidity and the mechanical strength of parallel crossover DNA motifs. We have used fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations in explicit solvent to get the force-extension curve of parallel DNA nanostructures to characterize their mechanical rigidity. In the presence of monovalent Na(+) ions, we find that the stretch modulus (γ(1)) of the paranemic crossover and its topoisomer JX DNA structure is significantly higher (~3

SUBMITTER: Santosh M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3177055 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature