Oligonucleotide dendrimers: stable nano-structures.

Journal article

DNA dendrimers with two, three, six, nine or 27 arms were reassociated as complementary pairs in solution or with an array of complementary oligonucleotides on a solid support. In all cases, duplex stabilities were greater than those of unbranched molecules of equal length. A theoretical treatment for the process of dissociation of dendrimers explains the major properties of the complexes. The favourable features of DNA dendrimers-their enhanced stability and the simple predictability of their association behaviour-makes them promising as building blocks for the 'bottom up' approach to nano-assembly. These features also suggest applications in oligonucleotide array/DNA chip technology when higher hybridisation temperatures are required, for example, to melt secon-dary structure in the target.

Authors: Shchepinov, MS; Mir, K; Elder, J; Frank-Kamenetskii, MD; Southern, E

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Nucleic acids research
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 15
• Pages: 3035-3041
• Publication date: 1999-08-01
• DOI: 10.1093/nar/27.15.3035
• EISSN: 1362-4962
• ISSN: 0305-1048
• Language: English
• Keywords: Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; Drug Design; Molecular Weight; Base Sequence; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Thermodynamics; Kinetics; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Temperature; Models, Molecular; Models, Theoretical