title: Production and targeting of monovalent quantum dots.
abstract: The multivalent nature of commercial quantum dots (QDs) and the difficulties associated with producing monovalent dots have limited their applications in biology, where clustering and the spatial organization of biomolecules is often the object of study. We describe here a protocol to produce monovalent quantum dots (mQDs) that can be accomplished in most biological research laboratories via a simple mixing of CdSe/ZnS core/shell QDs with phosphorothioate DNA (ptDNA) of defined length. After a single ptDNA strand has wrapped the QD, additional strands are excluded from the surface. Production of mQDs in this manner can be accomplished at small and large scale, with commercial reagents, and in minimal steps. These mQDs can be specifically directed to biological targets by hybridization to a complementary single stranded targeting DNA. We demonstrate the use of these mQDs as imaging probes by labeling SNAP-tagged Notch receptors on live mammalian cells, targeted by mQDs bearing a benzylguanine moiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of California, San Francisco; Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley; Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
authors.forename: Daeha
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco; Tetrad Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco; Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Farlow
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of California, San Francisco; Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco; Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: Kade
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Southard
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of California, San Francisco; Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco; YJun@ohns.ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Young-Wook
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco; Tetrad Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco; Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of California, San Francisco; Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco; zevgartner@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zev J
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Gartner
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D054735:Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D054735:Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides; D004247:DNA