Journal
BIOINTERPHASES
Volume 3, Issue 2, Pages FA17-FA21Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1116/1.2889062
Keywords
biomembranes; DNA; lipid bilayers; molecular biophysics
Categories
Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM069630] Funding Source: Medline
- PHS HHS [GMO69630] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A general method for synthesizing 5(')- and 3(')-coupled DNA-lipid conjugates has been developed and employed in DNA-mediated vesicle fusion. Vesicles presenting complementary DNA fuse, resulting in both outer and inner leaflet mixing as well as content mixing. Fusion is maximized using 5(')- and 3(')-coupled DNA on opposite vesicle partners, rather than only 5(')-coupled DNA, showing the importance of DNA orientation to the process. Lipid and content mixing assays show a dependence of fusion kinetics on the sequence and average number of DNA per vesicle. Vesicles without DNA or presenting noncomplementary sequences also appear to undergo some degree of lipid mixing or exchange, but no content mixing. Total lipid mixing appears to occur more efficiently than inner leaflet mixing and content mixing, and this may be explained by the observed nonspecific lipid mixing and/or the rise of a hemifused intermediate. The ability to control DNA sequence and the relative experimental simplicity of this system make it highly attractive to probe fundamental questions of membrane fusion using both ensemble and single vesicle assays.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available