Enhanced electrohydrodynamic collapse of DNA due to dilute polymers |
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| Authors: | C Benjamin Renner Ning Du Patrick S Doyle |
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| Institution: | 1.Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA;2.BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM) IRG, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Republic of Singapore 117543 |
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| Abstract: | We experimentally demonstrate that addition of small, charge-neutral polymers to a buffer solution can promote compression of dilute solutions of single electrophoresing DNA. This phenomenon contrasts with the observed extension of DNA during capillary electrophoresis in dilute solutions of high molecular weight polymers. We propose these discrepancies in micron-scale DNA configurations arise from different nano-scale DNA-polymer collision events, controlled by solute polymer properties. We build upon theories previously proposed for intermolecular DNA aggregation in polymer-free solutions to develop scaling theories that describe trends seen in our data for intramolecular DNA compaction in dilute polymer solutions. |
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