DNA On Surfaces: Adsorption, Equilibration And Recognition Processes From A Microscopist’s View.

The availability of a number of methods to controllably adsorb DNA on solid surfaces is useful to researchers working in different fields, such as structural biology, biophysical chemistry, diagnostics, sensorics, and nanotechnology. In this paper, we review some of the methods that have been devised in the last years to solve this problem. Thanks to the Scanning Force Microscope, we have recently been able to study the dynamics of DNA molecules adsorbed on mica. From the statistical analysis of the shapes of properly designed DNA molecules, we have also discovered an unexpected base-sequence specificity in the adsorption of intrinsically curved DNA molecules on mica.