Noncanonical Condensation of Nucleic Acid Chains by Hydrophobic Gold Nanocrystals

Overview

Journal JACS Au

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2023 Sep 1

PMID 37654586

Authors

Yu Li

Haoran Zheng

Hui Lu

Mulin Duan

Cong Li

Mingqiang Li

Jiang Li

Lihua Wang

Qian Li

Jing Chen

Jianlei Shen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Nucleic acid condensates are essential for various biological processes and have numerous applications in nucleic acid nanotechnology, gene therapy, and mRNA vaccines. However, unlike the in vivo condensation that is dependent on motor proteins, the in vitro condensation efficiency remains to be improved. Here, we proposed a hydrophobic interaction-driven mechanism for condensing long nucleic acid chains using atomically precise hydrophobic gold nanoclusters (Au NCs). We found that hydrophobic Au NCs could condense long single-stranded DNA or RNA to form composites of spherical nanostructures, which further assembled into bead-shaped suprastructures in the presence of excessive Au NCs. Thus, suprastructures displayed gel-like behaviors, and Au NCs could diffuse freely inside the condensates, which resemble the collective motions of condensin complexes inside chromosomes. The dynamic hydrophobic interactions between Au NCs and bases allow for the reversible release of nucleic acids in the presence of mild triggering agents. Our method represents a significant advancement toward the development of more efficient and versatile nucleic acid condensation techniques.

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