Assembly and Characterization of Circular DNA Nanostructures

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Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
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Publicerad
2010
Författare
Fredriksson, Charlotta
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Sammanfattning
Addressable molecules such as DNA, and also to some extent RNA, are useful as nanomaterials. Both of these molecules have well known structures, which can be used to form non-repetitive, small and high-informative nanonetworks. These networks can be formed by using sequences of oligonucleotides that are designed to be complementary in a predetermined pattern, which can give rise to functionalized DNA nanoconstructs such as circular DNA-nanoconstructs, i.e. DNA-rings. These DNA constructs can hopefully be used in e.g. intelligent drug delivery and programmable chemical synthesis. This Master’s thesis focuses on two aspects of DNA-ring formation: 1) the effect of cyanine dyes on DNA-ring formation and 2) the formation of linked DNA-rings. The first part will use two cyanine fluorophores (Cy3 and Cy5) to visualize the DNA-rings and study their effect on the formation of the DNA-rings. Also, the time and temperature of hybridization of the DNA-rings will be studied to observe how this affects their formation. The second part will focus on the formation of extended DNA-rings with links, and try to polymerize these for potential use in modular build-up of nanonetworks. Results from the first part have suggested that the fluorophores do affect formation, especially the formation of the 6 mer and 12 mer DNA-ring. The former seems to increase the less number of Cy while the latter decreases the less number of Cy. The time and temperature of hybridization also affect formation, a higher temperature seems to decrease the formation of larger DNA-rings, while a lower temperature seems to increase the formation of larger rings. Different hybridization times, on the other hand, seem to give a constant formation of both small and large DNA-rings, and this seems to apply to both Cy5 and Cy3 modified DNA-rings. The second part of the project, dealing with linked DNA-rings has shown that linked DNA-rings can be formed and that polymerization of DNA-rings may be possible. It is unclear if polymerization of the linked DNA-rings can be performed but results have indicated that it may be possible. The stoichiometry of Glue can be an explanation of the inefficient polymerization of linked DNA that has been presented in the results of this project.
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Kemi , Fysikalisk kemi , Chemical Sciences , Physical Chemistry
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