The use of nano-sized acicular material, sliding friction, and antisense DNA oligonucleotides to silence bacterial genes.

ABSTRACT: Viable bacterial cells impaled with a single particle of a nano-sized acicular material formed when a mixture containing the cells and the material was exposed to a sliding friction field between polystyrene and agar gel; hereafter, we refer to these impaled cells as penetrons. We have used nano-sized acicular material to establish a novel method for bacterial transformation. Here, we generated penetrons that carried antisense DNA adsorbed on nano-sized acicular material (α-sepiolite) by providing sliding friction onto the surface of agar gel; we then investigated whether penetron formation was applicable to gene silencing techniques. Antisense DNA was artificially synthesized as 15 or 90mer DNA oligonucleotides based on the sequences around the translation start codon of target mRNAs. Mix

SUBMITTER: Mitsudome Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4230895 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature