Recombinant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Gag protein can assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs) in suitable buffer conditions with nucleic acid. We have explored the role of nucleic acid in this assembly process. HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein, a domain of Gag, can bind to oligodeoxynucleotides with the sequence d(TG)(n) with more salt resistance than to d(A)(n) oligonucleotides. ...

Graphene oxide has gained significant attention due to its exceptional physical properties at biological interfaces. It has extraordinary quenching, fast adsorption and desorption properties that are suitable for detection of molecular interactions in nucleic acids. Here we studied the interaction between locked nucleic acid (LNA) modified oligonucleotides and its complementary miR-10b DNA anal...

Nucleic acid double helices are stabilized by hydrogen bonding and stacking forces (a combination of hydrophobic, dispersive and electrostatic forces) of the base pairs in the helix. One would predict the hydrogen bonding contributions to increase and the stacking contributions to decrease as the water activity in the medium decreases. Study of nucleobase paired duplexes in the absence of water...

Chemically modified bases are frequently used to stabilize nucleic acids, to study the driving forces for nucleic acid structure formation and to tune DNA and RNA hybridization conditions. In particular, fluorobenzene and fluorobenzimidazole base analogues can act as universal bases able to pair with any natural base and to stabilize RNA duplex formation. Although these base analogues are compa...

We present a novel low-cost biosensor for rapid, sensitive and selective detection of nucleic acids based on an ionic diode feature of an anion exchange nanoporous membrane under DC bias. The ionic diode feature is associated with external surface charge inversion on the positively charged anion exchange nanomembrane upon hybridization of negatively charged nucleic acid molecules to single-stra...

Nucleic acids are responsible for the storage of genetic information and directly participate in gene replication, transcription and expression, and thereby the control of nucleic acids leads to the regulation of genetic information flow and gene expression. Meanwhile, many non-coding RNAs are involved in signal transduction directly. Moreover, nucleic acid-based therapeutic strategies have bee...

Numerical taxonomy was done on 208 strains of marine bacteria. The collection was segregated into eight groups, seven of which contained Vibrio sp. Nucleic acid base ratio studies on a typical Vibrio sp. from each group and other genera were done. The phenotypically different Vibrio sp. had a narrow range of base ratios. The other genera had base ratios more similar to the base ratios reported ...

Recent observations on conjugated proteins (l-6) raise the question as to whether the prevailing ideas concerning the nature of the attachment of nucleic acids with the proteins are valid. With certain exceptions it has generally been assumed that the nucleoproteins are salts of a polyvalent nucleic acid and a polyvalent base (protein) (7). The ideas that nucleoproteins are salt-like (polar), o...