Communication

Weakly Charged Cationic Nanoparticles Induce DNA Bending and Strand Separation

  1. Justin G. Railsback1,
  2. Abhishek Singh2,
  3. Ryan C. Pearce1,
  4. Timothy E. McKnight3,
  5. Ramón Collazo1,
  6. Zlatko Sitar1,
  7. Yaroslava G. Yingling2,*,
  8. Anatoli V. Melechko1,*

Article first published online: 19 JUN 2012

DOI: 10.1002/adma.201104891

Issue

Advanced Materials

Advanced Materials

Volume 24, Issue 31, pages 4261–4265, August 16, 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Railsback, J. G., Singh, A., Pearce, R. C., McKnight, T. E., Collazo, R., Sitar, Z., Yingling, Y. G. and Melechko, A. V. (2012), Weakly Charged Cationic Nanoparticles Induce DNA Bending and Strand Separation. Adv. Mater., 24: 4261–4265. doi: 10.1002/adma.201104891

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

  2. 2

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

  3. 3

    Measurement Sciences and Systems Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA

*Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 6 AUG 2012
  2. Article first published online: 19 JUN 2012
  3. Manuscript Revised: 17 APR 2012
  4. Manuscript Received: 21 DEC 2011

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Keywords:

  • gold nanoparticles;
  • DNA compaction;
  • DNA denaturing;
  • cationic ligands;
  • DNA-nanoparticle interactions
Thumbnail image of graphical abstract

Weakly charged cationic nanoparticles cause structural changes including local denaturing and compaction to DNA under mild conditions. The charged ligands bind to the phosphate backbone of DNA and the uncharged ligands penetrate the helix and disrupt base pairing. Mobility shifts in electrophoresis, molecular dynamics, and UV-vis spectrophotometry give clues to the details of the interactions.

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