The self-assembly and liquid crystal formation of d(GpGpApGpG)

✍ Scribed by Giovanni Gottarelli; Gloria Proni; Gian Piero Spada; Stefania Bonazzi; Anna Garbesi; Federica Ciuchi; Paolo Mariani

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 309 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3525
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0282(19971015)42:5<561::aid-bip6>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

d(GpGpApGpG) dissolved in water forms liquid crystalline phases of the cholesteric and hexagonal type. The building blocks of the phases are columnar four-stranded aggregates composed of G quartets. The diameter of the columnar aggregates is larger and the melting temperature is lower than for homoguanylic derivatives, indicating a distorsion and loss of stability due to the presence of adenines, which do not form a hydrogen-bonded quartet. The present study shows that, as often observed for single crystals, it is possible also in the liquid crystalline phase to construct long columnar aggregates composed of shorter segments of the blunt-end type in a ''closed architecture.''