title: Determination of base binding strength and base stacking interaction of DNA duplex using atomic force microscope.
abstract: As one of the most crucial properties of DNA, the structural stability and the mechanical strength are attracting a great attention. Here, we take advantage of high force resolution and high special resolution of Atom Force Microscope and investigate the mechanical force of DNA duplexes. To evaluate the base pair hydrogen bond strength and base stacking force in DNA strands, we designed two modes (unzipping and stretching) for the measurement rupture forces. Employing k-means clustering algorithm, the ruptured force are clustered and the mean values are estimated. We assessed the influence of experimental parameters and performed the force evaluation for DNA duplexes of pure dG/dC and dA/dT base pairs. The base binding strength of single dG/dC and single dA/dT were estimated to be 20.0 ± 0.2 pN and 14.0 ± 0.3 pN, respectively, and the base stacking interaction was estimated to be 2.0 ± 0.1 pN. Our results provide valuable information about the quantitative evaluation of the mechanical properties of the DNA duplexes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, China Medical University, Shenyang, China. 110001.
authors.forename: Tian-biao
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automatics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China. 110016.
authors.forename: Chang-lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automatics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China. 110016.
authors.forename: Zai-li
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, China Medical University, Shenyang, China. 110001.
authors.forename: Yi-fu
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Guan
mesh_terms: D020029:Base Pairing; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004247:DNA