Switching the mechanics of dsDNA by Cu salicylic aldehyde complexation

摘要

DNA is increasingly employed as a programmable building block for nanoscale structures.Self-assembly via specific DNA base-pair recognition allows an unparalleled variety ofstructures to be formed. Subsequent stabilization of such structures may be desirable and can beaccomplished by metal coordination bonds to substituted bases. We investigated the switchingof the mechanics of dsDNA carrying salicylic aldehyde nucleosides upon copper complexation.We found the rupture force to increase by up to a factor of two. Furthermore we discovered thatthe strongly localized coordinative bond dominates the mechanics of this biomolecular hybridfor high loading rates, whereas at lower rates the broad binding potential of the DNA dominatesthe stability.