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

Saurabh, Suman and Lansac, Yves and Jang, Yun Hee and Glaser, Matthew A and Clark, Noel A and Maiti, Prabal K (2017) Understanding the origin of liquid crystal ordering of ultrashort double-stranded DNA. In: PHYSICAL REVIEW E, 95 (3).

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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.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	PHYSICAL REVIEW E
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the AMER PHYSICAL SOC, ONE PHYSICS ELLIPSE, COLLEGE PK, MD 20740-3844 USA
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	26 Apr 2017 07:24
Last Modified:	26 Apr 2017 07:24
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/56653

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