Swelling Inhibition of Liquid Crystalline Colloidal Montmorillonite and Beidellite Clays by DNA.

ABSTRACT: Exploring the interaction of nucleic acids with clay minerals is important to understand such issues as the persistence in soils of biomolecules and the appearance of genetic polymers in prebiotic environments. Colloidal dispersions of double stranded DNA and clay nanosheets may also provide interesting model systems to study the statistical physics of mixtures of semi-flexible rods and plates. Here, we show that adding very small amounts of DNA to liquid-crystalline montmorillonite and beidellite smectite clay suspensions strongly widens the isotropic/nematic phase coexistence region. Moreover, a spectroscopic study shows that, upon DNA addition, the first DNA molecules adsorb onto the clay particles. Remarkably, synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering experiments reveal that the average

SUBMITTER: Yamaguchi N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5847546 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature