Single-Stranded DNA Investigation Using Fluorescence ANALYSIS and Computer Simulation

School Name

Governor's School for Science & Mathematics

Grade Level

12th Grade

Presentation Topic

Physics

Presentation Type

Mentored

Mentor

Mentor: Soo Yong Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Abstract

G-Quadruplexes are structures found within telomeres, which are found at the ends of chromo-somes. They are made of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and have recently been found to have many uses in the prevention of cancer, particularly in the area of drug delivery. The typical strand found in the telomere has a nucleotide sequence of TTAGGG. We tested to see if a strand with the same base pairs but in a different order, TGTGAG or TAG, could form G-Quadruplexes. This would tell us whether or not the guanines have to be adjacent to each other for the stacking interaction to take place. We found that the persistence length of the telomeric strand was higher than TAG through Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS). This meant that the telomeric strand was more rigid than TAG within the solution. This can be attributed to the presence of G-Quadruplexes, meaning they did not form in the TAG strands.

Location

Wall 307

Start Date

3-25-2017 9:15 AM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 25th, 9:15 AM

Single-Stranded DNA Investigation Using Fluorescence ANALYSIS and Computer Simulation

Wall 307

G-Quadruplexes are structures found within telomeres, which are found at the ends of chromo-somes. They are made of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and have recently been found to have many uses in the prevention of cancer, particularly in the area of drug delivery. The typical strand found in the telomere has a nucleotide sequence of TTAGGG. We tested to see if a strand with the same base pairs but in a different order, TGTGAG or TAG, could form G-Quadruplexes. This would tell us whether or not the guanines have to be adjacent to each other for the stacking interaction to take place. We found that the persistence length of the telomeric strand was higher than TAG through Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS). This meant that the telomeric strand was more rigid than TAG within the solution. This can be attributed to the presence of G-Quadruplexes, meaning they did not form in the TAG strands.