Discipline: Physics
Subcategory: Cell and Molecular Biology
Taiquitha T. Robins - Jackson State University
Co-Author(s): Dacia McPherson2, Chenhui Zhu2, Mark Moran2, Dave M. Walba2, Giuliano Zanchetta3, Tommaso Bellini3, Noel A. Clark2, Francis Tuluri1 1 Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 2 University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 3 Universite degli Studi di Milano, Faroe Islands, Italy
Double stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is known to form lyotropic liquid crystal (LC) phases, nematic and then columnar with increasing DNA concentration in water. Single stranded (DNA) does not form liquid crystal phases. We studied the phase separation of short (6-20bp) DNA. In the mixture solution of self complementary sequences (scDNA) and noncomplementary sequences (nscDNA), the scDNA forms DNA double helices and hence forms LC phases while the nscDNA stays in the isotropic phase, the LC appearing in the form of phase separated droplets. We reported results of the use of centrifugation to produce complete spatial segregation of complementary and non-complementary DNA, based on their different LC-formation tendencies. In conclusion, this study provided ground work for further understanding of the structural formation of DNA as a result of liquid crystal ordering.
Not SubmittedFunder Acknowledgement(s): This work was supported in part by the NSF MRSEC Grant DMR 0213918 and NSF Grant ITS- 0606528, NSF Award No. 0353326, and the Minority Access to Research Careers/Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (MARC/U*STAR).
Faculty Advisor: Noel Clark, noel.clark@colorado.edu
Role: I completed this portion of a larger research initiative on LC formation of DNA.