title: Physical polymerization and liquid crystallization of RNA oligomers.
abstract: Ultrashort complementary RNA oligomers, as short as six base pairs in length, are found to exhibit chiral nematic and columnar liquid crystal phases in aqueous solution, through end-to-end adhesion into physically bound, but chemically segmented, polymers. Geometrical constraints indicate that the phosphate helix is continuous along the aggregated chain. The end-to-end adhesion is due to a base-staking type interaction, whose energy and temperature dependence are determined.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Biochimica e Biotecnologie per la Medicina, Università di Milano, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zanchetta
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bellini
authors.forename: Michi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Noel A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009841:Oligonucleotides; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA