Backbone-free duplex-stacked monomer nucleic acids exhibiting Watson–Crick selectivity

Smith, Gregory P.; Fraccia, Tommaso P.; Todisco, Marco; Zanchetta, Giuliano; Zhu, Chenhui; Hayden, Emily; Bellini, Tommaso; Clark, Noel A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1721369115

Backbone-free duplex-stacked monomer nucleic acids exhibiting Watson–Crick selectivity

Journal Article · Mon Jul 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721369115· OSTI ID:1625012

Smith, Gregory P. ^[1]; Fraccia, Tommaso P. ^[2]; Todisco, Marco ^[3]; Zanchetta, Giuliano ^[3]; Zhu, Chenhui ^[4]; Hayden, Emily ^[5]; Bellini, Tommaso ^[3]; Clark, Noel A. ^[5]

Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center; DOE/OSTI
Universita degli Studi di Milano, Segrate (Italy). Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Traslazionale; Universita Telematica San Raffaele, Roma (Italy). Dipartimento di Promozione delle Scienze Umane e della Qualita della Vita
Universita degli Studi di Milano, Segrate (Italy). Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Traslazionale
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center

We demonstrate that nucleic acid (NA) mononucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs and rNTPs), at sufficiently high concentration and low temperature in aqueous solution, can exhibit a phase transition in which chromonic columnar liquid crystal ordering spontaneously appears. Remarkably, this polymer-free state exhibits, in a self-assembly of NA monomers, the key structural elements of biological nucleic acids, including: long-ranged duplex stacking of base pairs, complementarity-dependent partitioning of molecules, and Watson–Crick selectivity, such that, among all solutions of adenosine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine NTPs and their binary mixtures, duplex columnar ordering is most stable in the A-T and C-G combinations.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1625012

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 33 Vol. 115; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Science & Technology - Other Topics
double helix
liquid crystal
nucleic acid
nucleoside triphosphate
prebiotic evolution

Backbone-free duplex-stacked monomer nucleic acids exhibiting Watson–Crick selectivity

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