Assembly of DNA-Functionalized Nanoparticles in Alcoholic Solvents Reveals Opposite Thermodynamic and Kinetic Trends for DNA Hybridization

摘要

In the past 20 years, DNA has been a key component in bionanotechnology, which can be attributed to the development of DNA chemical synthesis, the availability of a wide variety of enzymes for DNA manipulation, and the high fidelity and programmable DNA base pairing interactions. To date, the majority of the experiments involving DNA have been performed in aqueous solutions, as it is common knowledge that organic solvents such as ethanol can denature and precipitate DNA, which is actually a standard operation in DNA extraction. This may have led to the perception that DNA hybridization is slower and less stable in organic solvents, which in turn could explain the lack of related literature reports.