Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NAIL (Adsorption and Dynamics of Nucleic Acids on Surfaces in Ionic Liquid Environment)
Período documentado: 2018-03-01 hasta 2020-02-29
In the second phase we went a step further to understand the influence of various cations and anions of the ILs on the adsorption behavior of DNA. In particular, we were able to establish a clear correlation between the structure of cations of the IL and the rigidity of the DNA molecule. These studies were extended to also understand the influence of the IL anion on the rigidity of the DNA. These studies will be useful to develop IL assisted strategies to construct higher order nucleic acid architectures and more complex networks.
NAIL addressed the effect of concentration of ILs on the overall DNA network and also on the flexibility of the biopolymer. The project also clearly established the influence of ionic interactions and hydrogen bonding interactions on the flexibility of DNA strands. From the plethora of ILs, we judiciously identified certain specific ILs to unravel the role of specific interactions between the IL cation and DNA on the rigidity of the DNA molecules. The results point to the fact that specific hydrogen bonding interactions between the IL cation and the DNA molecule have a profound effect on the DNA flexibility