Dreyfus Rémi, Leunissen Mirjam E, Sha Roujie, Tkachenko Alexei V, Seeman Nadrian C, Pine David J, Chaikin Paul M
Center for Soft Matter Research, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jan 30;102(4):048301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.048301. Epub 2009 Jan 27.
We investigate the reversible association of micrometer-sized colloids coated with complementary single-stranded DNA "sticky ends" as a function of the temperature and the sticky end coverage. We find that even a qualitative description of the dissociation transition curves requires the inclusion of an entropic cost. We develop a simple general model for this cost in terms of the configurational entropy loss due to binding and confinement of the tethered DNA between neighboring particles. With this easy-to-use model, we demonstrate for different kinds of DNA constructs quantitative control over the dissociation temperature and the sharpness of the dissociation curve, both essential properties for complex self-assembly processes.
我们研究了涂有互补单链DNA“粘性末端”的微米级胶体的可逆缔合，它是温度和粘性末端覆盖率的函数。我们发现，即使对解离转变曲线进行定性描述也需要考虑熵成本。我们根据相邻颗粒之间拴系DNA的结合和限制导致的构型熵损失，为这种成本建立了一个简单的通用模型。利用这个易于使用的模型，我们展示了对于不同种类的DNA构建体，如何对解离温度和解离曲线的尖锐度进行定量控制，这两个都是复杂自组装过程的基本特性。
