title: Oligonucleotide dendrimers: stable nano-structures.
abstract: DNA dendrimers with two, three, six, nine or 27 arms were reassociated as complementary pairs in solution or with an array of complementary oligonucleotides on a solid support. In all cases, duplex stabilities were greater than those of unbranched molecules of equal length. A theoretical treatment for the process of dissociation of dendrimers explains the major properties of the complexes. The favourable features of DNA dendrimers-their enhanced stability and the simple predictability of their association behaviour-makes them promising as building blocks for the 'bottom up' approach to nano-assembly. These features also suggest applications in oligonucleotide array/DNA chip technology when higher hybridisation temperatures are required, for example, to melt secon-dary structure in the target.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK and. misha@bioch.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shchepinov
authors.forename: K U
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Mir
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Elder
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Frank-Kamenetskii
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Southern
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015195:Drug Design; D007700:Kinetics; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides