Structural properties of DNA G-quadruplexes with applications in colloidal assembly

Abstract

G-quadruplexes are complex DNA structures formed by guanine rich sequences. Such structures have the potential to form in many important regions of the genome such as telomere ends, promoter regions of many oncogenes. They exhibit a wide range of topologies depending on the nature of the sequences. In this work, we studied a number of sequences with interrupted G-tracts which were thought to disfavor the formation of G-quadruplexes. We found that many of these sequences form G-quadruplexes defying conventional rules. This thesis also addresses micro-particle assembly using DNA. Magnetic micro-particles have been connected with DNA quadruplexes to form long chains. This is supplemented by a study of dissociation of these particle chains in the presence of quadruplex binding ligands