Understanding the origin of liquid crystal ordering of ultrashort double-stranded DNA

Suman Saurabh, Yves Lansac, Yun Hee Jang, Matthew A. Glaser, Noel A. Clark, Prabal K. Maiti

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18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent experiments have shown that short double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) fragments having six- to 20-base pairs exhibit various liquid crystalline phases. This violates the condition of minimum molecular shape anisotropy that analytical theories demand for liquid crystalline ordering. It has been hypothesized that the liquid crystalline ordering is the result of end-to-end stacking of dsDNA to form long supramolecular columns which satisfy the shape anisotropy criterion necessary for ordering. To probe the thermodynamic feasibility of this process, we perform molecular dynamics simulations on ultrashort (four base pair long) dsDNA fragments, quantify the strong end-to-end attraction between them, and demonstrate that the nematic ordering of the self-assembled stacked columns is retained for a large range of temperature and salt concentration.

Original languageEnglish
Article number032702
JournalPhysical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Volume95
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Mar 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.

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