Stochastic Binding Process of Blunt-End Stacking of DNA Molecules Observed by Atomic Force Microscopy

Langmuir. 2018 Dec 11;34(49):15078-15083. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b02224. Epub 2018 Sep 17.

Abstract

Hydrophobic attraction is often a physical origin of nonspecific and irreversible (uncontrollable) processes observed for colloidal and biological systems, such as aggregation, precipitation, and fouling with biomolecules. On the contrary, blunt-end stacking of complementary DNA duplex chain pairs, which is also mainly driven by hydrophobic interaction, is specific and stable enough to lead to self-assemblies of DNA nanostructures. To understand the reason behind these contradicting phenomena, we measured forces operating between two self-assembled monolayers of duplexed DNA molecules with blunt ends (DNA-SAMs) and analyzed their statistics. We found the high specificity and stability of blunt-end stacking that resulted in the high resemblance between the interaction forces measured on approaching and retracting. The other finding is on the stochastic formation process of blunt-end stacking, which appeared as a significant fluctuation of the interaction forces at separations smaller than 2.5 nm. Based on these results, we discuss the underlying mechanism of the specificity and stability of blunt-end stacking.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • DNA / chemistry*
  • Gold / chemistry
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force / methods
  • Silicon / chemistry
  • Stochastic Processes
  • Surface Tension

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Gold
  • DNA
  • Silicon