Desorption of single-stranded nucleic acids from graphene oxide by disruption of hydrogen bonding

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) is known to interact with single-stranded nucleic acids through pi-stacking interactions and hydrogen bonds between the nucleobases and the hexagonal cells of GO. It also quenches the fluorescence when the fluorophore comes near to the GO mesh. When single-stranded (ss) regions of either DNA or RNA are present, those regions were adsorbed onto the surface of GO with a quenching of fluorescence located proximally to the GO surface. We demonstrated that bound single-stranded nucleic acids can be readily dissociated from GO by disrupting hydrogen bonding with urea, which was confirmed with fluorescence measurement and gel electrophoresis. Hydrogen bonding mainly contributes to the interaction between GO and single-stranded nucleic acids such as ssDNA and RNA. The GO-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (GO-MSNs) were synthesized for better separation of RNAs from cells. Cellular RNAs were readily adsorbed and eluted with ease by using GO-MSN and urea, respectively, demonstrating that GO-MSN and urea elution is a facile RNA extraction method.

Evaporation induced wrinkling of graphene oxide at the nanoparticle interface

“…Since the AuNPs are attached to GO by DNA, urea can wash away the hydrogen bonding responsible for this binding. 38 We did not observe any release of AuNPs for the dried sample, but for the hydrated sample, ~20% of the AuNPs were released ( Figure 3B), confirming that the AuNPs were more stably adsorbed after drying.…”

Comparison of MoS2, WS2, and Graphene Oxide for DNA Adsorption and Sensing

“…43 Following this, we exposed these three adsorption complexes to 5 M urea ( Figure 4A). We observed a significant release of DNA from GO (>50%) but much less from the other two materials.…”

Comparison of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide for DNA Adsorption and Sensing

“…21 Fundamental studies on the interaction between DNA and GO were also carried out. 11,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] GO is a loosely defined material, and the oxygen content can vary quite a lot depending on the preparation condition. The adsorption affinity of DNA is likely to depend on the oxygen content.…”