Short cylinder-like DNA duplexes, comprising 6 to 20 base pairs, self-assemble into semi-flexible chains, due to coaxial stacking interactions between their blunt ends. The mutual alignment of these chains gives rise to macroscopically orientationally ordered liquid crystal phases. Interestingly, experiments show that the isotropic–nematic phase boundary is sequence-dependent. We perform all-atom simulations of several sequences to gain insights into the structural properties of the duplex and correlate the resulting geometric properties with the observed location of the isotropic–nematic phase boundary. We identify in the duplex bending the key parameter for explaining the sequence dependence, suggesting that DNA duplexes can be assimilated to bent-core mesogens. We also develop a coarse-grained model for the different DNA duplexes to evaluate in detail how bending affects the persistence length and excluded volume of the aggregates. This information is fed into a recently developed formalism to predict the isotropic–nematic phase boundary for bent-core mesogens. The theoretical results agree with the experimental observations.

Self-assembly of mesogenic bent-core DNA nanoduplexes / Nguyen, KHANH THUY; Battisti, Anna; Ancora, Daniele; Sciortino, Francesco; DE MICHELE, Cristiano. - In: SOFT MATTER. - ISSN 1744-683X. - ELETTRONICO. - 11:15(2015), pp. 2934-2944. [10.1039/c4sm01571a]

Self-assembly of mesogenic bent-core DNA nanoduplexes

NGUYEN, KHANH THUY;BATTISTI, ANNA;SCIORTINO, Francesco;DE MICHELE, CRISTIANO
2015

Abstract

Short cylinder-like DNA duplexes, comprising 6 to 20 base pairs, self-assemble into semi-flexible chains, due to coaxial stacking interactions between their blunt ends. The mutual alignment of these chains gives rise to macroscopically orientationally ordered liquid crystal phases. Interestingly, experiments show that the isotropic–nematic phase boundary is sequence-dependent. We perform all-atom simulations of several sequences to gain insights into the structural properties of the duplex and correlate the resulting geometric properties with the observed location of the isotropic–nematic phase boundary. We identify in the duplex bending the key parameter for explaining the sequence dependence, suggesting that DNA duplexes can be assimilated to bent-core mesogens. We also develop a coarse-grained model for the different DNA duplexes to evaluate in detail how bending affects the persistence length and excluded volume of the aggregates. This information is fed into a recently developed formalism to predict the isotropic–nematic phase boundary for bent-core mesogens. The theoretical results agree with the experimental observations.
2015
DNA; liquid crystals; monte Carlo method; nanostructures; models, molecular; chemistry (all); condensed matter physics; medicine (all)
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Self-assembly of mesogenic bent-core DNA nanoduplexes / Nguyen, KHANH THUY; Battisti, Anna; Ancora, Daniele; Sciortino, Francesco; DE MICHELE, Cristiano. - In: SOFT MATTER. - ISSN 1744-683X. - ELETTRONICO. - 11:15(2015), pp. 2934-2944. [10.1039/c4sm01571a]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/847550
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